Tigers-Sooners rematch projected in Playoff

Do that, and Clemson will be no worse than the No. 2 seed in the Playoff.

We don’t know every team that will be selected and that matchups that will take place, but we do have a decent idea of which squads have a realistic chance to make the final four.

Two teams from the Big 12 sit just outside the top 10, as TCU and Baylor slide in at Nos. But they don’t have the ability to leave an impression like teams in championship games do. But it’s possible, the way the committee lifted the Sooners by four spots this week, that they would get in over Notre Dame even with an Irish victory in Palo Alto. The top remaining team with the highest ranked conference champion from the Group of 5 conferences (American, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt) also will receive a spot.

“I think the Big Ten is in”, Dantonio said. Alabama gets Florida in Atlanta for the SEC Championship, and Iowa and Michigan State will face off for the Big Ten title and a College Football Playoff berth. For now, Alabama is solidly above any Big Ten team, even an undefeated one. If the Tide lose focus this year – that was Alabama’s excuse last year for losing to Ohio State in the first round – it is on the guy making millions of dollars.

But the Sooners have been one of the nation’s hottest teams since and spanked arch-rival Oklahoma State in Stillwater last Saturday 58-23. Oklahoma is now the best team in college football. With Clemson facing either Iowa or Michigan State in the Orange Bowl in Miami.

No worries of a repeat of past year for the Big 12, when it was the Power Five conference left out of the playoff. UNC, like Ohio State last season, comes into Saturday as an underdog, and while the Tar Heels winning would be a bigger upset, it wouldn’t be an unthinkable one.

The Cardinal can win the Pac-12 championship by beating Southern California. The Trojans hope to ride the news of Clay Helton’s being named the team’s permanent coach to a Pac-12 title on Saturday. Clemson plays North Carolina in the ACC title game; Alabama takes on Florida in the SEC championship tilt. Otherwise (if Michigan State beats Penn State), beat Michigan and hope for a train wreck. I just don’t understand how the committee can rank Northwestern a spot ahead of MI, a team that beat it 38-0. The Owls (10-2) are No. 22. And some analysts say a scenario that would push Oklahoma out of the top four is virtually nonexistent.

Notre Dame has not won at Stanford Stadium since 2007. But it has been hurt by the eye test and “game control”.

North Carolina and Clemson had five common opponents, including SC, and both beat the other four fairly soundly. Well, no. The Tar Heels, ranked 12 in the Massey composite, have rolled through the ACC with relative ease and could challenge the Tigers.

The selection committee jumped the Tar Heels from 14th to 10th, but that leaves little doubt that victories over two FCS schools (North Carolina A&T and Delaware) are more of an albatross around North Carolina’s neck than a loss to Texas is for Oklahoma.