When the initial playoff rankings came out, Clemson was ranked #5. A stunning and equally laughable ranking for anyone that follows college football. That said that’s where they stood, with the likelihood that the results would sort themselves out.
Still it opened the door to the committee doing the unthinkable and leaving an undefeated Clemson out of the playoffs.
Saturday should close that door and end the debate completely. If Clemson is undefeated, they will be in the playoffs. If you don’t think Clemson is a top 4 playoff team, then it’s not a debate – really you’re just dumb to be honest. No college football fan or media member with any level of football understanding should have Clemson outside of the top 4.
Penn State the team that was ranked 4th prior to this weekend lost on the road to Minnesota. The Gophers now at 9-0 themselves should be on the fringes of the playoff discussion. Alabama lost 46-41 to LSU in a game where a fluke late score made the game closer than it really was. LSU led for large portions of the game by double digits.
Clemson faced a depleted NC State team and ran out to a 42-0 1st half lead. In Clemson’s last 5 games, they have outscored their opponents 167-10 (that’s 33-2) in the first half before pulling their starters
Most teams would take that for an entire game.
The Tigers have entered their 2nd half of the season playoff mode, and despite a down ACC and a soft schedule, this team is clearly one of the elite teams in college football.
Most in the national media have marked Clemson in the top 4 now, and I expect the playoff committee to do the same this week. Last week is history, and I don’t see anyway Clemson is left out of the playoffs should they win out.
The real debate is at #4 where UGA, Alabama, Oregon, Utah, Minnesota, Baylor, and Oklahoma are fighting for 1 spot.
Who would I put there at the moment?
Right now I’d rank the teams…
4 – Oregon 5 – Utah 6 – Alabama 7 – Minnesota 8 – Georgia 9 – Baylor 10 – Oklahoma.
Oregon has won 8 games in a row since a loss to Auburn where they outplayed the Tigers. Utah has a close loss USC, as their only blemish. The Ducks and Utes lack quality wins, but will get a top 10 opponent (each other in the Pac 12 Title game)
Alabama is stuck at 6 and could finish the season with just 1 ranked win. That’s not enough to warrant inclusion.
Minnesota now 9-0 and just beat the team the committee thought was the 4th best team in the country in Penn State.
Georgia is talented, but the loss to South Carolina looks worse with each passing week. Playoff teams don’t lose at home to teams the caliber of South Carolina using their 3rd string QB. They have 2 decent wins over Notre Dame and Florida, but that loss is so bad they need help if I was a voter.
Baylor is 9-0, but were lucky to beat TCU Saturday. Oklahoma is fantastic offensively, but doesn’t play a lick of defense. If Baylor runs the table, could they really be left out?
To me not if they beat Oklahoma and Texas in back to back weeks and win the Big 12. They are a wild card in all of this this.
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