Irish break into top 4 in College Football Playoff rankings

First up are the Bears, who have beaten Oklahoma by an average margin of 43 points the last two years. “They’ve been able to overcome a few injuries”. That all starts Saturday when the Oklahoma Sooners visit Waco, Texas, in the week’s only game between two playoff contenders. Alabama can strengthen its case as the best one-loss team in the country or could drop out of the playoff with an upset from the upstart Bulldogs. I don’t think it’s right. I don’t think that you can stumble a couple of times. Now really, this kickoff return team has got to come of age. I’m sorry, but a one-loss power five program should be ahead of mid-tier programs with one loss.

Following Clemson in the standings are Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame.

Still, the focus remains on winning out. Put simply, under the committee’s criteria, there was no reason to rank Iowa behind Baylor other than that Baylor’s record was less surprising than Iowa’s, which may have led members to be more skeptical. “That’s all we can do”.

This is usually the time of year where people, especially college students, are just anxious for Thanksgiving.

I knew this would happen. The rest is out of our hands. If the Tigers win out, and don’t get help, they’d probably wind up in the Sugar Bowl. “They’ve had a week off. They’re self-scouting us and we’ll have to do a good job against them this week”. We debate in this week’s playoff roundtable.

The big winners in the second College Football Playoff ranking release Tuesday were Stanford and Iowa, which each improved four positions as they angled into four-team playoff contention.

Stanford: OR and Notre Dame at home, and the Pac-12 title game. Clemson (at Syracuse) 2. Only Iowa or Ohio State will emerge from the Big Ten. Iowa (vs. Minnesota) 6. Oklahoma State (9-0) 9. LSU (30-16 loss at Alabama) 3.

Buckeyes QB pleads guilty • Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett pleaded guilty to a count of driving while impaired and was sentenced to a three-day driver-intervention program and fined $400. Plus, if Alabama were to lose a game, everything is still on the table for LSU to win the SEC. It is arguably their second best win of the season, behind their early October victory over Notre Dame. Clemson 2. Alabama 3. Although a November 28 date with Notre Dame looms large, this week’s matchup with OR, last year’s conference and Rose Bowl champion, isn’t something to take lightly despite the Ducks’ 6-3 season. 5 and 6, respectively, followed by Stanford (8-1) and Oklahoma State (9-0).

As for Pac-12 teams, the top two are seventh-ranked Stanford and 10th-ranked Utah. Utah; 11. Florida; 12. MI State 14. MI 15.

– SEC: Florida State beats Florida, giving Florida a second loss.