Week 3: Playoff Rankings

There was a bit of status quo once again this week for the top teams. Eight out of the of the top eight teams won and quite frankly the only one with any real excitement or drama was the Michigan game and they brought it on themselves.  I will be so glad when all of this is behind us but more importantly the question answered, will any of this Signgate eliminate them from the playoffs.

For Buckeye50, our top two remained the same as it had the first two weeks, with really our only change was that Washington, with it’s string of big wins has now moved up to #3. More importantly, we are not seeing any reason to change our votes based on the play on the field.

It is hard to say if the committee will move Georgia up over Ohio State tonight, especially after their win over Ole Miss. But at the same time, Ohio State is actually looking better the past couple of weeks so is it appropriate to drop them?

This is the 10th year of the playoffs, and just before we make the move to a 12 team playoff (be sure to vote in our poll below) one thing to watch out for is this.  If Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon and Florida State all win out, which is not a hard stretch, could we have the same four teams this year as we did in 2014, the first year of the playoff era. All I know is if it does happen, can we please put Ohio State and Oregon in the Rose Bowl for one last ‘traditional’ Rose Bowl?

My prediction for the committee is we will not see any change in their top six teams.  The only possible change I would imagine is flipping Georgia and Ohio State, but to be honest, the Buckeyes really did nothing that should cause them to drop.   

The one thing the committee said for sure, there will not be any way for a non-power 5 team to make the playoffs.  With that said there are only 10 schools remaining with zero or one loss, so we can almost bet the four teams will come out of that group as we will likely not have a two loss team either.

Here is how our staff voted this week and our composite list of the top six teams.

 How We Voted

 

Buckeye50 Playoff Poll

1. Georgia defeated Ole Miss last week in a clear statement game.  The statement, we are STILL the number #1 team in the nation, if anyone feels differently, come knock us off the hill. They have now won 27 straight, which is two shy of setting a new conference record.  They have Tennessee this week which was looking like it might be a challenge until the Volunteers laid an egg last week.  Do they have enough left in their tank to knock off the Bulldogs?  Georgia remained #2 in the Playoff committe’s eyes for the second straight week, will be interesting to see if they move up to #1 with their home win over Mississippi.  The AP voters were not swayed and still voted Kirby and the boys top spot as they have all season.

2. Ohio State still gets credit for the two best wins (Notre Dame and Penn State) of the top teams but with each going down the past two weeks, I would not besurprised if the Buckeye  Strength of Schedule takes a bit of a hit.  But the offensive line and Kyle McCord have both shown signs of improvement, will need to see if the playoff committee views it that way.  The running game continues to grow and the defense was top notch in spot of missing several starters due to injury.  They Buckeyes should just rinse-and-repeat this week and the Gophers come to town.  Maybe another chance to boost up the Heisman campaign for Marvin Harrison Jr.

3. Washington defeated the defending Pac-12 Utah Utes this past weekend but the victory did not come easy. They remain the only unbeaten team left in the conference, and just need to wait and see who they will face in the Pac-12 championship game.  We predicted they would move up in the polls, it just may happen sooner than we originally thought. They take on another solid opponent this week in Oregon State.  If they can come out of this season unbeaten, they will have earned a top three playoff ranking, at the very least.  

4. Florida State continues to be the most consistent team this year, but now their play is starting to look a bit average.  And their conference may not offer them a good test until they take on Louisville on the ACC championship game.  But they are doing exactly what they must do and that is keep on winning. But they are not going to get any committee love when they pound North Alabama this weekend. 

4. Michigan is just a story that needs to go away.  If even half of the stories that have come out are true, they should not be allowed to play football. Just my opinion, And I am sorry but, “Well other teams cheat too” is not a good defeI have changed my color for the Wolverine writ-eup from blue to yellow.  Because that is what they are in my opnion, yellow cowards in all this mess.  It could be a bit of a trap game for them this week as they face Maryland.  The Terps can put up points so if that happens, watch out.

6. Oregon remains the top one-loss team as their only loss is to a top 5 squad. But they may also have the toughest road remaining of the one loss teams as well as they still face Arizona State and Oregon State.  The one good thing about it is their fate is in their own hands.  Win the next three games an you are in the playoffs..

	1	2	3	4	5	6
Cory	Georgia	Ohio State	Michigan	Washington	Florida State	Oregon
Gregg	Georgia	Ohio State	Washington	Michigan	Florida State	Oregon
Jason	Georgia	Ohio State	Florida State	Washington	Michigan	Oregon
John	Georgia	Ohio State	Washington	Florida State	Oregon	Texas
Josh	Georgia	Ohio State	Florida State	Michigan	Oregon	Washington
Rick	Georgia	Ohio State	Florida State	Washington	Michigan	Oregon
Steven	Georgia	Ohio State	SCUM	Washington	Oregon	Florida State
Trout	Georgia	Ohio State	Michigan	Washington	Florida State	Oregon
Vaughn	Georgia	Ohio State	Michigan	Washington	Florida State	Oregon

Here is how we voted for this week, let us know how you predict this week’s rankings will go!  Who is your top 4?  Be sure to leave your comments below