Tide Holds No. 2 Spot In CFP Rankings

Notre Dame was dropped out of the College Football Playoff picture Tuesday – essentially – as it was ranked sixth by the committee after being rated fourth for several weeks.

Temple is back in the College Football Playoff rankings. That sets the table for a dramatic final two weekends for the top contenders.

Notre Dame’s sloppy play the past two weeks has caught up to the Irish.

“They need to play well, they need to win their games and they need to add that final piece to their body of work against Oklahoma State”. Whoever Stanford plays in their conference title game will have three losses.

Alabama: The Crimson Tide might have the nation’s top defense. The undefeated Clemson Tigers still hold the top spot.

Jeff Long, the CFP Selection Committee chairman, said Oklahoma’s performance since losing to Texas coupled with its six wins over opponents with. In the last rankings, when Baylor’s and TCU’s schedule were nearly identical, the committee finally honored the head-to-head result and placed Baylor ahead of TCU. Other games to watch include Baylor-TCU and Ohio State-Michigan. How much difference is there from one vote to the next? With a win against Mississippi State on Saturday in the Egg Bowl, they would finish 9-3, making Bama’s home loss back in September look a little better. These have been two really good teams that have won a lot of games the last few years.

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 Hawkeyes will face either Michigan State, Michigan, or Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship. Notre Dame is in Palo Alto, Calif., against the ninth-ranked Stanford Cardinal.

Help needed: All right, Baylor fans. Then Stanford beats Notre Dame. After last year’s disappointment wouldn’t it be something if Oklahoma lost at Oklahoma State which is possible with Baker Mayfield’s status unknown?

The Big 12 has the top three offenses in the country, four in the top 6 and five in the top 17 – 1.

Iowa the best playoff value? Notre Dame has one of the most storied programs in the United States with eleven football championships acknowledged by the NCAA and seven Heisman Trophy winners boosting their resumes. A two loss Alabama team might not be left out either.

The Gators’ drop is deserved after they barely beat 2-9 (!!!) Florida Atlantic in overtime.

All of this means nothing, of course, if MSU doesn’t follow up its very big win at Ohio State by avoiding a home upset against Penn State. They’re going to play for the conference championship anyway against North Carolina. That’s the biggest obstacle, but far from the only one. The Irish have fallen behind Iowa and MI State in the standings, the byproduct of Hawkeye and Spartan wins and an ugly ND effort versus Boston College at Fenway Park.

Over at FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver’s model has simulated the rest of the season thousands of times and Oklahoma now has a 64% chance (up from 45% a week ago) to take one of the four playoff spots, tied with Alabama, and trailing only Clemson (71%). The victory pushed the Bears up from No. 10 to No. 7 in this week’s poll.

Certainly you couldn’t lose your last game and still make the playoffs.