The College Football Playoff Selection Committee revealed its penultimate rankings of the year. Here are three takeaways heading into Championship Weekend.
We have made it to Championship Weekend in college football. The Power 5 conferences all have championship games this season, but only four teams will be making the College Football Playoff this year.
The College Football Playoff Selection Committee revealed its final rankings before the real thing next week. It was one of the most anticipated rankings of the 2017 season, as last week’s No. 1 and No. 2 teams both went down. The Alabama Crimson Tide lost the Iron Bowl to the arch-rival Auburn Tigers. The Miami Hurricanes lost a real headscratcher to the Pittsburgh Panthers who aren’t even bowl eligible.
This week, the Selection Committee had these four teams in: No. 1 Clemson Tigers (11-1), No. 2 Auburn (10-2), No. 3 Oklahoma Sooners (11-1) and No. 4 Wisconsin Badgers (12-0). Alabama and the Georgia Bulldogs (11-1) were the first two teams out at No. 5 and No. 6, respectively. Rounding out the top-10 were No. 7 Miami (10-1), No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes (10-2), No. 9 Penn State Nittany Lions (10-2) and No. 10 USC Trojans (10-2).
With five Power 5 conference championship games to still be decided, here are the three biggest takeaways from the Selection Committee’s penultimate revealing of their top 25 teams.
Six teams control their own destiny. That’s it!
It’s really, really simple, guys. There are six teams that control their own playoff destiny and that’s it. Those six teams are as follows: Clemson, Auburn, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Georgia and Miami. All six teams will be playing in their respective conference championships. If they win their conference, they’re in.
Clemson will face Miami in the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte on Saturday night. The Tigers will presumably maintain the No. 1 seed should they beat the Hurricanes at Bank of America Stadium. Even though Miami is situated at No. 7 this week, the Hurricanes will get in as a No. 3 or No. 4 seed as a one-loss ACC champion.
Auburn will face Georgia in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers will get in if they win the SEC, as they will have beaten Georgia twice and Alabama in a four-week span. Georgia is No. 6, but will finish in the top-four and make the playoff if it knocks off Auburn in a rematch. The Tigers are pretty banged up heading into that championship game.
Oklahoma will play the No. 11 TCU Horned Frogs (10-2) in the Big 12 Championship game in Arlington on Saturday. A one-loss Big 12 champion absolutely gets in. The Sooners could be the No. 1 overall seed if Clemson and Auburn falter in their conference title bouts. Oklahoma is cooking with gas offensively down the stretch with Heisman frontrunner quarterback Baker Mayfield.
Lastly, undefeated Wisconsin will play the No. 8 Ohio State (10-2) in the Big Ten Championship game in Indianapolis. Don’t think for a second that an undefeated Big Ten champion is not making the playoff. That would be a horrendous precedent for the Selection Committee to not have an undefeated Power 5 conference champion not in the playoff, regardless of how bland Wisconsin’s resume is.
Simply put, Clemson, Auburn, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Georgia and Miami win on Saturday and they will have punched their respective tickets to the playoff. Other teams can theoretically crash the party, but these six have to feel good about their chances of getting heading into Championship Weekend.