PLAYOFF RANKINGS: Ohio St up; Michigan, Clemson still top 4

“We’re still driving the vehicle”, Clemson senior center Jay Guillermo said.

This is why they play the game of college football.

It would take a few more shakeups to get any of them into the playoffs, but MI could be without quarterback Wilton Speight the rest of the way, so the final four is hardly settled.

Ohio State was the biggest beneficiary of all the upsets at the top of last week’s rankings. Still, could Louisville leap into the top four after the Michigan-Ohio State game is played? The Tide are so far ahead of the pack right now that it often feels like they’re not competing against other teams so much as they’re competing against themselves, and against the standard set by the championship outfits that came before them.

There’s a second problem for these teams, and it’s in Happy Valley.

The Buckeyes are second to unbeaten Alabama following 62-3 victories over both Nebraska and Maryland. “We have to do a better job of taking care of the football”. If Washington wins its next two games over Arizona State and No. 22 Washington State, the Huskies will jump the Cardinals. MI 4. Clemson 5.

The committee also could put two Big Ten teams in the four-team playoff: the champion plus an 11-1 Ohio State.

The Big 12 and PAC 12 will both be left out of the College Football playoff. From the pageantry surrounding the game – including an extravagant national anthem – to the rivalry itself, it’s widely considered one of the most anticipated games of each year.

The first domino that fell was No. 2 Clemson, which played with fire once too often and ended up losing in Death Valley to unranked Pitt on a late field goal. The committee’s clearly not impressed by one-loss No. 14 West Virginia; WVU’s closer to one-loss Boise State (No. 20) than any of the other one-loss Power 5 teams (Washington, No. 6). The Buckeyes lost to fellow East Division member Penn State, clouding their chances to win the division and thus the league. Clemson is the only school in the nation with four wins over AP Top 25 teams. Oklahoma State 12. Utah 13. Texas A&M was in ideal shape to sneak into the Playoff, as they had only one loss (to Bama), a No. 4 spot in the CFP rankings, and a relatively easy schedule the rest of the way.

At the end of the regular season and conference championship games, the top four teams will go to the College Football Playoff Semi-final games. In explaining the stability of MI after its 14-13 loss at unranked Iowa, Hocutt said, “Michigan is the only team with three wins against current CFP top-10 teams”. Which is why that final ranking is the only one that matters.

Behind the dynastic Tide, however, came a wave of chaos that reminded everyone why college football is the flawless American sports spectacle and why trying to boil it down to four teams may be a fool’s errand. He gained 198 yards in a win over Nevada on Saturday, passing DeAngelo Williams for fourth place on the all-time NCAA list. Presumably, PSU would have been savaged for losing at IN as well. But what if Ohio State wins that game and Penn State wins out and they go to the Big Ten Championship game but not the Buckeyes?

One-loss Boise State stands at No. 20, a spot higher than this season’s underdog darling, undefeated Western Michigan. Clemson was knocked down to #4.

This loss also re-opens the door for teams like Ohio State, Louisville, and Wisconsin.