The Heated Race to the College Football Playoff!

According to oddsmakers at MyBookie.ag, Iowa actually is listed with 18/1 odds to win the college football playoffs, which is seventh of teams listed.

Can Clemson close out the regular season without slipping up?

Oklahoma moved into third and Iowa was fourth in the new College Football Playoff rankings as Notre Dame slipped to No. 6. The F/+ ratings at Football Outsiders.com, which use play-by-play and possession-by-possession data to determine a team’s efficiency, have Iowa 25th. “I think if you look at the teams across the board we’ve played, from the start in September all the way through November, we’ve played a very good schedule”. We won’t get into the merit of those wins right now because its clear the committee values them and their opinions are the only ones that matter.

While last night’s release of the most recent playoff rankings did indeed deal a crushing blow to Notre Dame’s playoff hopes, the Irish are not out of the playoff race by any means although at this point they do nearly certainly need help in addition to a victory on the Farm this weekend.

However, if Clemson or Alabama fall in their respective conference title games, the playoff picture could get very complicated.

Coming in third in the rankings are the defending champions, the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Irish only lost to No. 1 Clemson on the road by two points, while posting wins over No. 16 Navy, No. 25 Temple and now unranked USC.

No. 5 Michigan State has to play Penn State this weekend. For this exercise, the Huskers pull off the upset and knock Iowa from the ranks of the unbeaten. Also, a win is a win blah, blah, blah but Michigan State’s win over Michigan was lucky. While a win in the Big Ten title game isn’t a given, a matchup with Michigan State is the most likely scenario and the Spartans are dealing with an injury to QB Connor Cook.

Baylor Bears @ TCU Horned Frogs (Bay -1.5) – I believe in the Baylor “System” to succeed here.

Baylor and Oklahoma State are in a similar boat, with identical resumés. If nothing else, it seemed to show the committee really wasn’t paying much attention to where the teams had been ranked the previous week.

Notre Dame (10-1) also plays its last game of the season Saturday, a possible résumé-builder against Stanford, which is ninth in the rankings.

An Oklahoma loss and a Notre Dame loss could leave Baylor (9-1) and Stanford (9-2) vying for the last spot as conference champions.

(12) 4% selected Navy Midshipmen (Kangaroos) if they win out against Houston and in the American Conference title game.

Larry Scott won’t know what to do if Stanford wins, then loses. Any more chaos – weirdness in the Big Ten, for example, an Alabama loss, Clemson getting upset, whatever – would just be icing. Mississippi State (8-3, SEC) 22. Alabama beats Auburn in the Iron Bowl and the two meet in the Georgia Dome for the SEC Championship.

The conference’s other one-loss team, Baylor (9-1) plays TCU this week and Texas on December 5.

While they each have one loss, their wins and overall talent on paper look much more impressive than Iowa’s.

One-loss Florida, meanwhile, was ranked No. 8 last week. “To a man, since I took over, I never questioned our effort and the way we’ve prepared”. The meeting between traditional Big Ten and national rivals summons up the best in college football traditions, and you can bet that the ghosts of Woody Hayes and Bo Schembeckler will be stalking the sidelines, at least in the memory of fans from both sides, in a quest to finally prove to the other who is the best in football. Alabama holds its position in the rankings despite playing Southwest Missouri Tech State Academy last week.

While I am looking forward to the Florida-Florida State game on Saturday in Gainesville, I can not help but wonder what will happen when MI and Ohio State lock horns.

Here are the College Football Playoff rankings.