Notre Dame, Stanford play for CFB bid

A last minute victory by Michigan State and poor play from Notre Dame have opened the door for long shot playoff contenders. “We don’t have anything to prove to anybody”.

MI is one of the nation’s top defensive teams, allowing 14.9 points per game, but it has been vulnerable at times this season to good running teams with a dual-threat quarterback. The victory, while not flawless, was unambiguous. From his game-winning touchdown against Virgina, Kizer has shown he is extremely poised for a freshman and that he is not afraid of the big stage.

Week 13 delivered on its annual promise, shining clarity on the College Football Playoff picture while leaving hints of intrigue for next week’s conference championship games.

Stanford head coach David Shaw … Belief in their preparation. In fact, they aren’t even mentioned with the top teams. If the Playoff committee was only deciding on who the best team is right now, it might be hard to keep the Sooners out of the top spot.

The day gets started with Ohio State and MI kicking off at 12:00 p.m. ET.

IF that happens, and I don’t think it’s a insane scenario for tonight’s games at all, the Big Ten not only gets three teams into New Years Six games, it also likely gets two teams into the College Football Playoff, with one of those teams being Ohio State and the other being the Iowa-Michigan State victor. The Cardinal will present a compelling case if they can beat USC next Saturday to win the Pac-12 and finish the season at 11-2. 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. Still, given the myriad injuries with which the Domers have had to deal, it’s a minor miracle that they were even in the playoff discussion this late in the season, and a testament to Brian Kelly and his coaching staff.

The SEC champion is in too.

Path to the playoff for Alabama: Beat Florida in the SEC title game and the Crimson Tide are in. There’s a less-than-nil chance that the selection committee doesn’t have a member of the “Best Conference in America” in their tournament. Cardinal fans should buy their North Carolina gear ASAP. That’s because two of North Carolina’s wins came against FCS opponents, and the Tar Heels also have a loss against a team that fell to The Citadel, South Carolina.

The case against the Cardinal isn’t even that compelling. The victor of next Saturday night’s game is going to get a spot in the playoff, whether it’s an undefeated Iowa or a one-loss Michigan State that would own wins over Iowa, Oregon, Ohio State and Michigan.

One-loss North Carolina could make the claim that they deserve a shot at the title after knocking off No. 1. Continued wins by Clemson and Temple have helped the Irish, but losses Friday by Pittsburgh and Navy might hurt.

Perhaps a two-win Pac 12 champion could leap frog all three, but that seems improbable.

Had Shaw’s team not lost to Northwestern on September 5, these far-flung hypotheticals wouldn’t be necessary.

Thousands of Stanford students streamed onto the field to celebrate the end of Notre Dame’s bid for a spot in the playoffs.

But they didn’t, so now the odds are stacked heavily against them. “It’s definitely something that’s a missed opportunity but we just have to learn from the mistakes that we made”.

That’s a shame too. Really, the only thing that matters is which team plays the best on that particular day.

Notre Dame’s defense, which has given up more than 20 drives of 75 yards or more this season, gave up two more in the first half.

That strength of schedule has impressed the committee and seemingly locks the Tide into one of the four seeds if they win out. Perhaps. There’s no question a team of this caliber deserves a chance. I think a lot of that was just we settled into our game plan and played just better football defensively.