College Football Playoff Rankings: Stanford, Ohio State or North Carolina Could Make a Move
By Kyle Koster
The penultimate College Football Playoff rankings have been released. The top four are the same as last week’s. Michigan State stays at No. 5 and has what is essentially a play-in game with Iowa. Ohio State and Stanford are No. 6 and No. 7 respectively. The Buckeyes’ season is over while the Cardinal face USC in the Pac-12 championship game. North Carolina, with Clemson waiting, sits at No. 10.
Here is the complete Top 25:
- Clemson
- Alabama
- Oklahoma
- Iowa
- Michigan State
- Ohio State
- Stanford
- Notre Dame
- Florida State
- North Carolina
- TCU
- Baylor
- Ole Miss
- Northwestern
- Michigan
- Oregon
- Oklahoma State
- Florida
- Houston
- USC
- LSU
- Temple
- Navy
- Utah
- Tennessee
The major takeaways here?
- Stanford is in a great spot should Alabama fall. A quality win over the Trojans should allow them to jump Ohio State and the loser of the Big Ten title game. Ohio State needs a Stanford loss in addition to a Crimson Tide stumble. Both teams should be very nervous of North Carolina at No. 10.
- A UNC win over Clemson would really muddle things up. Would the committee prefer a two-loss conference champion (Stanford) to a one-loss conference champion? Just how much would the Tar Heels’ weak nonconference schedule and bad loss to South Carolina matter?
- The SEC will be shut out if Florida upsets Alabama with the Gators sitting down at No. 18.
The questions above will be moot if favorites take care of business on Saturday. But if you’re banking on predictability, perhaps college football isn’t for you.