Week 3: Playoff Rankings

It wouldn’t be college football without some shake-ups, and this weekend sure gave us some shake ups that could impact the final playoff bracket. First, Ohio State took care of business against Northwestern, so they will likely remain as the 2nd ranked team, and 5th seed in the projected bracket since Oregon won at Camp Randall in a close game, but still remain perfect, and Texas got by Arkansas, and didn’t do enough in my opinion to jump Ohio State. 

Now we get to the interesting part where we really might see only one representative from every conference not named the Big Ten or SEC, and the SEC has 6 teams that are in contention. For the Big Ten, they are still looking solid with 4 teams, and depending on the outcome of the Ohio State versus Indiana game this weekend baring a blowout. Oregon is a lock for the playoff, it would be just a matter of what they do from here with Washington and a likely Big Ten Championship game appearance. Penn State had no problems with Purdue, and will finish the season with Minnesota and Maryland, but no ranked opponents the rest of the way. They will likely finish 11-1 and have a first round bye.

The ACC is starting to work itself out, and Clemson rebounded after a loss to Louisville who just got beat by Stanford. With two teams with 1 loss in Miami and SMU, and Clemson with only 1 conference loss, I think only the winner of the ACC championship will make its way into the playoff. The Big 12 had the biggest hit to their conference chances of getting multiple teams with BYU losing to Kansas, and are no longer undefeated. Colorado though took care of Utah and are now in the top 2 of the conference standings, and could find them selves not only in the Big 12 championship game if they beat Kansas this week, but also a Playoff bid if they play BYU and give them another loss. Notre Dame will take on Army this week, which is still undefeated, and the Irish have not lost since the NIU game in week 2, and are looking better every week. If they lose to Army, I think they might be out, and the conversation then will turn to if Army now becomes the Group of 5 representative. Boise State handled San Jose State, but might not get a boost in their conference championship game if they end up playing Colorado State instead of a rematch with UNLV, who found their way back into the top 25 of the AP Poll.

For the SEC, they are beating each other up, and will be hard to rank based on who has beaten who, but lost to another team. They have 6 teams in the mix still with Texas, Texas A&M, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Ole Miss. That Texas vs Texas A&M game might have the ticket value of a multimillion dollar home’s mortgage payment, and will likely be the College GameDay location, but the winner would advance to the SEC Championship game. 

Will be fun to see how this shakes out, and see if the Buckeyes can get their second top 5 win of the season.

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

Buckeye50 Playoff Bracket

 

Who is your top 12?  Be sure to leave your comments below