College football conference power rankings: Week 13

Heading into the final weekend of November, the college football season is getting good.

The 2020 college football season will be entering Week 13 ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Not only are we entering the final weeks of the regular season, but we saw the first unveiling of the College Football Playoff rankings. While the top six teams were not a surprise, we did see a major shakeup in the bottom of the top 10 and in the teens. Since we will be using the CFP rankings to help us understand what conference is best going forward, let’s start with that now.

College Football Conference Power Rankings ahead of Week 13

Though one could argue for the Big 12 to be ahead of the Pac-12 this week because it has twice the amount of top-25 teams over the West Coast conference, the biggest thing plaguing the Big 12 is that it has no shot to get a team into the College Football Playoff. Whoever ends up winning the conference championship game will get to play in the Cotton Bowl Classic in January. That is it.

However, the Big 12 does have four quality teams at the top of its conference in the No. 11 Oklahoma Sooners, the No. 13 Iowa State Cyclones, the No. 17 Texas Longhorns and the No. 23 Oklahoma State Cowboys. The winner of Iowa State at Texas will presumably face Texas in the Big 12 Championship game with a New Year’s Six bowl on the line. Oklahoma is the favorite to get it.

The Pac-12 is slotted ahead of the Big 12 this week since it has four teams who have not lost, including two big brands who find themselves ranked inside of the top 25 in the first College Football Playoff rankings: The No. 15 Oregon Ducks and the No. 18 USC Trojans. Along with the Colorado Buffaloes and the Washington Huskies, maybe the Pac-12 gets a team in 2020?

For the Pac-12 to get a team in, the conference champion will have to do so without suffering a single blemish. Frankly, even if it is Colorado or Washington, neither program is as well-respected as Oregon is now, nor are they as glamorous as USC is historically. What ultimately hurts the Pac-12 is a late start, a lack of games and Oregon being the conference’s best team at No. 15 overall.

The Big Ten is in a great spot to get one team into the College Football Playoff. The Selection Committee gave it a little more respect by adding an unexpected fifth team to the top 25 in the No. 24 Iowa Hawkeyes. Though Iowa will not make the playoff, the conference champion between presumably the No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes and the No. 8 Northwestern Wildcats absolutely will.

Ohio State and Northwestern will be favored in every remaining conference game they play until they meet in Indianapolis for a playoff berth on the line. Having Northwestern as the No. 8 team this week is a big surprise, as well as a credit to how well the Wildcats have played. Though Ohio State is a spot lower than expected at No. 4, if the Buckeyes win out, they will make the field, too.

The ACC has clearly separated itself from the Big Ten at this time and is within striking distance of taking the top spot from the SEC at some point. The reason for this is the ACC is the likelier of the two Power 5 conferences to get two teams into the College Football Playoff. As many as three teams in the ACC have a great to an outside shot of making the four-team field. How many get in?

The winner of the ACC Championship game will be a top-two seed. We except it to be the No. 3 Clemson Tigers over the No. 2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish if they were to meet again in Charlotte. The No. 10 Miami Hurricanes still have an outside shot of getting in, but need the two ACC teams above them to slip up. Also, keep an eye on the No. 19 North Carolina Tar Heels vs. Notre Dame.

It may not happen, but the SEC will remain the top dog as long as the Alabama Crimson Tide retain the top seed in the four-team tournament. Though the SEC could get two teams into the field, whether that is the No. 6 Florida Gators as a Power 5 champion or the No. 5 Texas A&M Aggies as a one-loss, at-large team, it would not be shocking if only Alabama gets in out of the SEC this year.

What was shocking is the two-loss Georgia Bulldogs coming in as the No. 9 team in the nation in the first College Football Playoff rankings. This was about three or four spots higher than everyone expected. For that reason, the SEC will almost certainly get at least three teams to New Year’s Six bowls, four if Alabama is joined by either Florida or Texas A&M in the College Football Playoff.

So what do the initial playoff rankings tell us about the state of the Power 5 conferences? They showed us there is a clear distinction between the ACC, the Big Ten and the SEC vs. the Big 12 and the Pac-12. We know the ACC champion and the SEC champion are getting in, and very likely the Big Ten champion, too. What is up for debate is who will end up being the fourth team getting in.

Now that we know where the Selection Committee’s collective head is at, let’s play some ball, y’all.

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