Clemson Maintains Grasp Of All Major Rankings

Iowa: The Hawkeyes lose their first game of the season in Indianapolis on Saturday and are passed over for the Rose Bowl in favor of Ohio State. That loss opened the door for Sparty to compete in the Big Ten Championship as the top team from the East division and at this point, it looks as though Ohio State’s chances of reaching the playoff have passed them by.

The Big Ten championship game will serve as a de facto quarterfinal of the playoff, with the victor moving on to the four-team tournament. If Temple wins, its in a New Year’s Six bowl and would likely not play Notre Dame given the two teams played on Halloween this year.

“We had great debate about Clemson and Alabama, and we had a number of revotes”, said Long, the Arkansas athletic director and playoff committee chairman.

While the rankings seem to have always favored Big 12 stalwarts like the Sooners, Texas and Oklahoma State, both TCU and Baylor made major statements previous year that they are conference powerhouses, leading to controversy over the final playoff rankings. Ohio State? I believe in the conference champions only line, but in terms of quality, they’re probably better than both Iowa and Michigan State.

Having one is North Carolina’s only shot at the top four, and that shot appears to be long.

The only top 4 team I’ve yet to mention is Oklahoma, who held on to their #3 spot with a surprisingly lopsided road victory over hated rival #11 Oklahoma State last week. Some analysts argued that either Alabama or Oklahoma, which each won convincingly Saturday, could ascend to the No. 1 spot this week.

Also out is USC, a four-time loser that plays Stanford for the Pac-12 title, and Florida, which managed only a safety last week against ACC also-ran Florida State.

In South Florida, the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl is expected to host Clemson if the Tigers defeat North Carolina in the ACC Championship on Saturday night.

A win over Clemson gives North Carolina the signature victory it’s sorely lacking, and the absence of which explains the Tar Heels’ No. 10 ranking.

The entire top-four remained the same as it was in last week’s rankings, although three of the four teams play in conference title games Saturday.

In the playoff semifinals, the simulation has #1 seed Clemson facing off against #4 seed Iowa and has Clemson winning 72% (81.0% last week) of the time by an average score of 28-21 (29-19 last week).

That’s not to say it shouldn’t change drastically if North Carolina beats Clemson, but right now, it makes sense.

What are we to make of North Carolina? Ohio State’s loss to Michigan State was only by three points in a game that Ohio State led or was tied for 59:59 of the game.

Stanford is the only Pac-12 team in the conversation, and the conference could potentially be eliminated entirely if USC upsets the Cardinal in the conference title game.

First take: “No longer are we in a world of “when” you lose a game matters because losses have been completely devalued”.

Iowa, meanwhile, is the program that cultivated Bill Snyder so Kansas State fans will forever be grateful. However, Iowa’s notable wins came against the Wisconsin Badgers and Northwestern Wildcats.

Many people out there look at Notre Dame and see their two losses and want to use it as a reason why they shouldn’t continue to be an independent.