Week 1: Playoff Rankings

Welcome to the first week of our playoff poll! We are starting the first season with the 12-team playoff, which will make some of the format a little different than what we are used to with the 4 team playoff. The biggest different will be the ranking vs seeding twist. The way the rankings will work is that the playoff committee will rank the teams from the top 25 regardless of conference or foresight on seeding. Seeding is going to be based on the top 4 conference champions between the Power 4 conferences and the highest ranked Group of 5 team. The top 4 conference champions will be seeded 1-4, and will have a first round bye. Seeds 5-12 are the at large teams, and the 12 seeded teams has to have 1 representative of the group of 5. So even if the 3rd ranked team for example is ranked higher than the ACC or Big 12 champion, the conference champion will be seeded higher because of the agreement at the start of the playoff discussions. The highest ranked seeds in the first round (5, 6, 7, 8) will host at their home stadium, but have the option to move locations to help with a more home field advantage. The second round will then big played on the rotating New Years Six bowl sights, and are aligned to the conferences bowl ties from the past. For example, the Big Ten Champion will play at the Rose Bowl this year, while the SEC Champion will play at the Sugar Bowl. 

With that out of the way, the College Football Playoff committee will reveal their rankings later tonight for the first iteration of the 12-team playoff. Because there are no conference champions crowned yet, the top ranked conference leaders will be seeded 1-4. If the AP poll is any indication, we could be safe in saying that Oregon, Georgia, Miami, and BYU, who are the highest ranked teams in their respective conferences, will likely be seeds 1-4. 

Ohio State lost to Oregon by 1 point in the last second on the road, and just defeated the then number 3 team in the country in Penn State, and would currently be fighting for an at-large bid. They should be one of the higher seeded teams based on their resume, and there is a good chance that we see them as a 5 seed in the first playoff bracket, which would host the 12 seed. 

This has been a wild season so far, with a lot of upsets. One of the good things about the playoff, is that a lot more teams are in the discussion than they normally would have been in the 4-team playoff. A loss does not automatically disqualify you from the conversation, and a second loss could still keep you in, which is going to be a challenge for a lot of traditionalist fans in the sport. 

For the Big Ten, teams that are still alive are Oregon, Indiana, Ohio State and Penn State. At this time, Indiana and Oregon are are both undefeated and sit atop the Big Ten standings, but the Hoosiers have a showdown against Ohio State on November 23rd which could determine their chances to playing in the Big Ten Championship game. 

We have 4 weeks left of the regular season, and a lot can still happen between now and the last week of November.

Here is how our staff voted this week and our composite list of the top 12 teams.

How We Voted

Buckeye50 Playoff Poll

	Gregg	John	Josh	Rick	Trout
1	Oregon	Oregon	Oregon	Oregon	Oregon
2	Ohio State	Ohio State	Ohio State	Georgia	Ohio State
3	Georgia	Georgia	Georgia	Ohio State	Georgia
4	Texas	Miami	Miami	Miami	Miami
5	Miami	Indiana	Texas	Texas	Texas
6	Indiana	BYU	Indiana	Penn State	Indiana
7	Penn State	Texas	Tennnessee	Tennessee	Tennnessee
8	Tennessee	Penn State	Penn State	Indiana	Penn State
9	BYU	Tennessee	BYU	BYU	BYU
10	Notre Dame	Notre Dame	Notre Dame	Notre Dame	Notre Dame
11	Washington State	Iowa State	Alabama	Boise State	Alabama
12	Boise State	Boise State	Boise State	SMU	Boise State

Here is how we voted for this week, let us know how you predict this week’s rankings will go!  Who is your top 12?  Be sure to leave your comments below