College Football Playoff rankings, Week 13: 3 takeaways
By John Buhler
Miami rightfully leapfrogged Clemson
In a way for the Selection Committee to mildly correct itself from a three-match between Alabama and Clemson in the national championship, it decided to knock Clemson down a spot and move Mark Richt’s program into the No. 2 spot.
While Miami will only play 11 regular season games, they don’t have an ugly loss on the résumé like Clemson does on the road to a Syracuse Orange team that won’t finish above .500. All the Hurricanes have to do to stay at No. 2 heading into the ACC Championship is to beat the tar out of a bad Pittsburgh Panthers team.
Clemson’s best win is at home early in the season over No. 6 Auburn. That win does look better by the week, but we have to realize that’s not the same Auburn team that played in Death Valley several weeks ago. Auburn might handle Clemson in a neutral site.
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The Tigers do get a bit of a break this week in seeing their in-state rival South Carolina Gamecocks (8-3) as the No. 24 team in the country. However, seeing the North Carolina State fall out of the top 25 doesn’t help. Frankly, Miami’s win over Notre Dame was more dominating than Clemson’s over Auburn. With the Virginia Tech wins crossing each other out, Miami should be ahead of Clemson heading into the ACC Championship Game.