No. 4 Notre Dame visits No. 13 Stanford in CFP eliminator

Oklahoma, on the strength of a win against TCU, moved from No. 7 to No. 3 and unbeaten Iowa rounded out the top four.

The Sooners (10-1) seem to be in solid shape with only one game left in their regular season.

Clemson and Alabama remained Nos. 5 and 6, respectively.

The Irish, fourth in the committee’s previous two rankings, dropped to No. 6.

Path to the Playoff: Beat No. 9 Stanford tonight and have Oklahoma lose to Oklahoma State. Oklahoma, Michigan State and Iowa all control their Playoff destiny should they win their conference championship games. The SEC and Big XII have four teams each and the ACC has three. This week is rivalry week, and for many on the outside looking in, it’s the last chance to impress the committee before championship week. It’s rivalry weekend, and several major rivalry games have some big implications on the playoff picture. They have already written themselves off to the spoiler roll, meanwhile Baylor, although coming off a loss, showed up to play at Oklahoma State and proved they are not out of playoff discussions just yet. The Sooners’ loss was to Texas and with the Big 12 now using head-to-head tiebreakers, they would be the conference’s one champion. Alabama and Auburn play in the Iron Bowl at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Last season TCU finished with a weak Iowa State team. If Michigan State is better, they will emerge from the title game in Indianapolis on December 5th with a trophy and a berth in the final four.

Notre Dame plays at Stanford on Saturday; Oklahoma plays at Oklahoma State. Again, unless Notre Dame posts some type of monstrous blowout of Stanford, jumping ahead of the Big Ten champ looks very hard. But Peyton Manning will miss at least the next two games with an injured foot, so we’ll have to settle for Brock Osweiler and the 8-2 Broncos trying to spoil Tom Brady and the 10-0 Patriots’ bid for their second 16-0 regular season. Oklahoma (10-1, Big XII) 4.

#9 Stanford: Beat Notre Dame this weekend and lose in the Pac-12 Championship. Then they would have a strong case to go against the victor of Notre Dame-Stanford. Johnson feared that a win over 8-1-2 and No. 8 Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl would not be viewed as favorably by voters, so he began his campaign. And what will happen when Ohio State’s Urban Meyer and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh clash for the first time? Plus the committee would have to pick Stanford over MI – and that, I’d say, is a coin flip. Do you really MI to try backdoor their way into the Big Ten Championship like they did in the Sugar Bowl during Brady Hoke’s first year?

The Irish’s biggest competition for a spot in the playoff figured to come from the Big 12, most likely Oklahoma (10-1). Florida (10-1), 13. Florida State (9-2), 14. Period. A loss to UNC would be a bigger collapse than North Carolina QB Marquise Williams throwing two interceptions in the end zone – on the same play in the same spot of the end zone – in a now unthinkable season-opening loss to SC that will (no matter what) keep the Tar Heels from the CFP, too.

#15 Navy, #16 Northwestern: Both teams can win this weekend and it wouldn’t impact Michigan State as long as the Spartans win out. The problem is they are not good enough to do it. With Kevin Hogan and Christian McCaffrey passing and running all over the place, this game might become a runaway for the Pac-12’s best team. Also notable, though unlikely: If Alabama loses to the Tigers and Mississippi defeats the aforementioned Mississippi State, then Alabama doesn’t even make the trip to Atlanta for the SEC title game.