College Football Playoff rankings after Notre Dame upsets Clemson, Florida smashes Georgia

The College Football Playoff pictures changes drastically after Clemson is upset by Notre Dame.

We just might get two teams in from the ACC in the College Football Playoff after all.

In the signature game of the weekend, the No. 4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish upset the No. 1 Clemson Tigers in a double-overtime thriller. Though the game was in South Bend and Clemson did not have starting quarterback Trevor Lawrence available for it, few people gave the Golden Domers much of a chance to pull off this monumental upset. Well, guess what? It happened.

College Football Playoff teams after Week 10

With the Alabama Crimson Tide on their bye week, we can feel confident about this team’s chances of going undefeated in SEC play. The Crimson Tide have wins over the two best teams they will play this year in the Texas A&M Aggies and the Georgia Bulldogs. Though the Auburn Tigers could be a menace in the Iron Bowl, Alabama will likely get to Atlanta undefeated.

What this really comes down to for the Crimson Tide is where they will land inside of the top three. They will remain there as long as they stay undefeated. We know the offense is electrifying with guys like Mac Jones, Najee Harris and DeVonta Smith leading the way. If the defense can come alive down the stretch, this Crimson Tide might be capable of winning it all without a single loss.

Somehow, someway, Notre Dame moves all the way up to No. 2 after upsetting Clemson. This was the best victory of the season by any team this year. In most instances, this would be enough to get the Irish all the way to the top spot. However, they have not played another quality opponent this year, while Alabama has beaten two top-10 teams in Texas A&M and Georgia.

The good news for Notre Dame is the Irish are in a fantastic spot to reach the College Football Playoff. Like the Crimson Tide, they are expected to get to their conference title bout without a loss. Even if Notre Dame were to fall to Clemson in Charlotte, they are still getting in as an at-large team. They need to keep taking care of business, but what a way to take charge of their season.

Improving to 3-0 is the Ohio State Buckeyes who will likely not be challenged by anyone in Big Ten play this season. The No. 3 team in the country had no issues getting past the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Saturday. What is interesting is the second-best team in the Big Ten East is the No. 13 Indiana Hoosiers, who are also 3-0. Ohio State is better, though.

Are the Buckeyes capable of going undefeated and winning a national title? Absolutely, but they are going to need some help to get the top seed in the four-team tournament. The reasons for this are a smaller conference-only schedule compared to the ACC and the SEC, as well as an undetermined second-best team in the conference. They need the Wisconsin Badgers to be good.

Clemson does take a hit from this road loss to Notre Dame. However, we all know the Tigers would have beaten the Irish more times than not in this situation, especially with Lawrence starting over D.J. Uiagalelei. The Tigers still control their own destiny. If they were to win out they are winning the ACC Championship over Notre Dame in a rematch and making it to the playoff.

What Saturday night did, however, was show us Clemson is not a lock to get to the national championship game. While the Tigers could win from any spot in the playoff field, they are no longer going to be the No. 1 seed and pick the Sugar Bowl as their preferred national semifinal destination. Clemson is still in great shape to get the No. 2, No. 3 or No. 4 seed this season.

First two teams out

Texas A&M is not so quietly going to town on their SEC schedule. Though the Alabama loss earlier in the year was not great, everybody in the SEC will fall to the Crimson Tide this year if they face Nick Saban’s team. As for the Aggies, they have a great opportunity to go 9-1 this season. If they do that, they might get into the playoff as the No. 4 seed as an at-large if Alabama wins the SEC.

This is the best Texas A&M team we have seen since they joined the SEC back in 2012. Jimbo Fisher has a phenomenal offense that is led by senior quarterback Kellen Mond. With a blowout victory over the cross-divisional rival South Carolina Gamecocks, the Aggies are playing with a ton of momentum. This is without question a team bound for a New Year’s Six bowl at the very least.

With a win over SEC East rival Georgia in Jacksonville, the Gators are in the driver’s seat to win a division crown and face Alabama in the SEC Championship game. Saturday was arguably the biggest win of Dan Mullen‘s tenure in Gainesville. The offense was fantastic with Kyle Trask spinning it and the defense largely kept the Georgia offense in check. How good is Florida?

The separation between Texas A&M and Florida is not that great. While the Aggies have a better defense, Florida has a slightly better offense. The good news for the Gators is they control their own playoff destiny. If they win out, they are getting in. However, they do not have the head-to-head tiebreaker with Texas A&M, so the Gators can only get in as an SEC Champion this season.

Overall, the only significant team to have its playoff dreams crushed in Week 10 was Georgia. We knew the loser down in Jacksonville would suffer this fate. But what we were not prepared for was Notre Dame actually upsetting Clemson on Saturday night. This was the Irish’s biggest win in who knows how long. They are a real threat to win the ACC and make the College Football Playoff now.

The ACC and the SEC are capable of getting two teams in, but both conferences cannot pull it off.

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