Notre Dame IN; Fighting Irish Makes the College Football Committee’s Top-4

But what about now? They still face Baylor and Oklahoma, but a nonconference schedule of Central MI, Central Arkansas and UT-San Antonio is a potential millstone if the status quo prevails. The value of the 13th game became apparent last season, when Ohio State bypassed both TCU and Baylor for the fourth and final berth.

In the rankings, unbeaten Iowa received an eye-catching promotion, rising four spots to No. 5. The Buckeyes improved to 9-0 with a 28-14 home win over Minnesota.

The last two out, according to the committee, would be Iowa at No. 5 and Baylor at No. 6. 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. That’s what makes college football the best sport in America. Vegas can’t afford to be biased.

Bottom line, if LSU wins out, they’re certainly in the conversation.

16 Florida State (7-2) 17.

Oklahoma and TCU, and the Cowboys also play Oklahoma. But there’s no excuse to have Baylor ahead of Oklahoma State.

But that’s far from a harbinger of doom for the Gators’ chances of making the College Football Playoff field. Baylor’s Art Briles, among others, has been on record as saying an undefeated Big 12 champion will be in the playoff. Awaiting them will be the Houston Cougars, the top mid-major who will have quite a nice resume if they are able to beat Memphis and Navy down the stretch.

The selection committee is composed of 12 members, including Jeff Long, Barry Alvarez, Mike Gould, Kirby Hocutt, Tom Jernstedt, Bobby Johnson, Tom Osborne, Dan Radakovich, Condoleeza Rice, Mike Tranghese, Steve Wieberg and Tyrone Willingham. Quite frankly, he didn’t sound like he even knew. The Sooners suffered their lone loss to Texas at home on October 10 but have since won four straight games by a combined 182 points. “We will see in the coming weeks”. The Kansas States and Iowa States of the world are probably perfectly content staying in the conference. 5 and 6, respectively, followed by Stanford (8-1) and Oklahoma State (9-0). Long stressed that Iowa has showed consistent improvement and is solid on both sides of the ball, and he said that while the Hawkeyes have “not been flashy”, they have two impressive road wins in the Big Ten.

Ohio State will have another chance to play a ranked team in its regular-season finale November 28. Comparative margin of victory evidently doesn’t factor into that part of the equation, but even if it does Iowa’s in better shape for it.

What? But you JUST compared those tests! Purdue should provide a more comfortable margin before a big matchup against Wisconsin. The committee’s top four of Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame are mighty strong. 500 against the Tigers because of when the second win came – would have. Barrett, 20, apologized to his family, Ohio State and Buckeyes football fans in a brief statement at a hearing in Columbus (Ohio) Municipal Court where his lawyer said Barrett took responsibility for driving under the influence when he was cited on October 31. So assuming those three don’t slip up, there’s only one spot left. The Cardinal will host OR and California the next two weeks before its showdown with Notre Dame.