Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame top my ‘First Four’ Ballot

“But with the Big 12’s schedule backloaded, we now see a few of those teams emerging”. The Heels have only four wins over.500-plus teams (that’s only one behind Ohio State, but, well, you know). Sometimes the criteria changes by the week and applies differently depending on the team and conference.

Alabama is by far the best one loss team in the nation and they have shown it. Their defense has played to its usual Nick Saban standards in the last two weeks and they are just now rounding into form. How will the committee reward them this week?

Who they’ll be rooting for this week: Oklahoma and Boston College. They have a good system, two quarterbacks that are playing well.

Win out. Beat Ohio State (or MI State or Michigan).

Both schools, despite being undefeated, aren’t in the tp four likely based on their strength of schedules. That personnel, more than anything, makes them a formidable postseason opponent, but they have to get past MI State and MI first. Oklahoma’s receiver caught an eye-popping 14 passes for 177 yards during Baylor’s first loss, out-receiving Baylor star Corey Coleman, whose 3-for-51 wasn’t bad but looked puny. The complete Week 12 Big Ten football schedule, including game times and networks, is listed below. MI State needs to play a lot better Saturday than it has in previous weeks if that’s going to happen, though. And then comes the state of Oklahoma.

But what would a win do for OSU? A one-point loss on the road to a top-25 team does nothing to prove that Memphis is not a top-25 team.

The top three of No. 1 Clemson, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Alabama is unchanged after all three won on Saturday. The Sooners want to be looking up at the Cowboys in the playoff rankings when the pair meet in Bedlam on November 28, and Boston College could do Oklahoma (and Oklahoma State) a huge favor with an upset of the Irish. This is an unfortunate reality, but it’s true. Compare that to Ohio State, which seems to have put early season struggles behind them. Florida’s impressive wins came against Ole Miss and Tennessee. These teams are familiar and historically successful.

The team is now 10-0, making this the best start in the program’s history.

This summer Baylor coach Art Briles was asked if the committee would have even debated putting Texas and Oklahoma in the Playoff a year ago if they were in the same situation as TCU and Baylor.

The committee would hold a teleconference on December 12, after the Army-Navy game, and determine if it’s necessary to revise the December 6 rankings relative to Navy. Their consolation prize for not winning the conference will be a matchup against a risky Notre Dame team that will be pretty heated after being left out of the playoff. Right behind them is Iowa, which very likely will fight it out with the Big Ten East Division victor (Ohio State?) for a spot in the bracket – if both are undefeated before that league championship game. The Buckeyes also had one loss.

Oklahoma (9-1, 6-1) jumped five spots to No. 7 in the rankings after a 44-34 win over Baylor in Waco. It’s still hard to imagine the committee leaving an unbeaten Power Five team out.

You probably don’t want to wait that long to find out what they’ll look like, though.