Iowa stays at No. 4 in CFP rankings

That fact hindered the league previous year when two of its contenders, Baylor and TCU, watched Ohio State leapfrog them to the coveted No. 4 spot on the steam of a 59-0 win over Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game on the eve of the final rankings. The Tigers face North Carolina in the ACC title game and Alabama meets Florida in for SEC honors.

The College Football Playoff selection committee kept its top-five teams status quo on Tuesday, with No. 1 Clemson followed by No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 4 Iowa and No. 5 Michigan State. No. 3 Oklahoma absolutely destroyed Oklahoma State in its big rivalry game. There’s nearly no chance that a 1-loss Big Ten champion that has beaten Michigan, Ohio State, and Iowa (with none of those games at home), along with OR (#18 in the A&H Rankings), and whose only loss involved a blown call on the game’s decisive play at Nebraska, will get left out of the playoff field. Ohio State’s only top-25 win is over No. 15 MI.

Ohio State’s 42-13 win at MI boosted the Buckeyes within range of earning a spot in the top four.

OU will have two bye weeks in 2016: The first bye week falls between Ohio State on September 17 and TCU on October 1, and the Sooners will also have an extra week between the game at West Virginia on November 19 and a December 3 home date for Bedlam with Oklahoma State.

The final ranking and pairings will be announced Sunday. Notre Dame at 11-1 probably would have forced the committee to at least reconsider whether the Fighting Irish belonged in over maybe the Big 12 champion Sooners or the Big Ten champion.

There are two ways for the Buckeyes to potentially make it into the playoff – Florida beating Alabama or North Carolina beating Clemson. That win may have solidified their number 3 ranking by the playoff committee. The Sooners stayed at No. 3, behind Clemson and Alabama.

Long said the committee had “great debate” when trying to decide before selecting Clemson over Alabama for the No. 1 spot in this week’s poll. They’re winning, they’re scoring a ton of points… but they also lost to SC, which has to be THE worst loss in the top 20, right?

All of the top teams in the Big 12 went head-to-head in November. The playoff picture is likely to change only if Alabama or Clemson lose.

Below is a look at Saturday’s championship game schedule for the power conferences, including start times and TV channels.

North Carolina’s resume would be significantly strengthened by a victory over the top-ranked team.

“In the committee’s eyes, if a team has not clearly separated itself above another and they are clearly equal, then we apply those four criteria of conference champion, head-to-head and those factors”, CFP committee chairman Jeff Long said. Like Baylor, the Cowboys would be in the running against a 1-loss ACC champ or a 2-loss SEC, Big Ten, or Pac-12 champ. The Cotton Bowl in North Texas will host the other semifinal. OR sits at No. 16 while Utah occupies the No. 24 spot.