College football conference power rankings: Iowa State gives Big 12 new life

Matt Campbell’s Iowa State Cyclones have breathed new life into the Big 12.

The SEC has long been the king of college football. The addition of Notre Dame to the ACC for this year and Clemson’s continued excellence on top of the resurgent Miami Hurricanes have vaulted the conference to the next tier. Ohio State is always the class of the Big Ten but down seasons from Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin have opened up the possibility for the Big 12 which has been helped by once-moribund Iowa State to fill that power void.

College football conference power rankings entering Week 15

We almost forget the Pac-12 is even playing games these days. While they are still technically a Power 5 conference, it has not mattered that one-sixth of its teams remain undefeated. The shame in it all is the No. 15 USC Trojans and the No. 20 Colorado Buffaloes are having fine seasons in a year where there is next to no interest in their games on the West Coast. This is the Pac-12.

What is even weirder is the Colorado game vs. USC has been canceled, meaning neither team will be able to beat its division rival when crowning a division champion. Even weirder, the Washington Huskies can have its game vs. the Oregon Ducks canceled and still win the Pac-12 North. With only two ranked teams this late in the year, the Pac-12 continues on its downward spiral.

The only reason the Big Ten edges out the Big 12 entering Week 15 is because of how much of a valued property Ohio State Buckeyes football is. Had this team lost one of its five games this season, nobody would care about the Big Ten. While three other teams are ranked in the top 25 at this time, the only team that matters here is Ohio State.

The Big Ten athletic directors agreed to waive the six-game requirement to crown a champion and play in the conference title bout. Having the head-to-head victory over the No. 12 Indiana Hoosiers certainly helps. As long as the Buckeyes beat the No. 14 Northwestern Wildcats in the Big Ten Championship Game, the Selection Committee will get them in.

The Big 12 is clearly No. 4 this week, but this is also the closest it has gotten to getting into the top three. The reason for this is the Big 12 Championship game-winner between the No. 7 Iowa State Cyclones and the No. 10 Oklahoma Sooners has an outside shot of making the four-team College Football Playoff field.

Iowa State has soared up these playoff rankings in the last two weeks. The Cyclones climbed up to No. 9 last week and then leapfrogged both the Cincinnati Bearcats and the Georgia Bulldogs to get to essentially the third team out. If Matt Campbell’s team gets to 9-2, there is a snowball’s chance they make the playoff. In all likelihood, the winner of the Big 12 title game makes the Cotton Bowl.

Once again, the gap between No. 2 and No. 3 is vast. The only two conferences that have a shot at being No. 1 at the end of the season are the ACC and the SEC. While the ACC trails the SEC yet again, as it has pretty much all season long, there is certainly a pathway for this Power 5 conference to overtake them in the end. Here is how that can happen in a few weeks.

While both Power 5 conferences have five ranked teams entering Week 15, the ACC has two teams that would get into the playoff if the season ended today: No. 2 Notre and No. 3 Clemson. If both get in, that might be enough to unseat the SEC if they can only submit one team. Winning a national title would do the trick as well, as is finishing with two more ranked teams.

The SEC may not end up in first place at the end of the season, as the ACC could theoretically leapfrog them. However, the SEC is on top for a handful of reasons. The first being having four teams ranked inside of the top 10, three still in the mix to make the College Football Playoff and four teams still alive to play in New Year’s Six bowls. No other conference can claim that.

Because Alabama is expected to beat Florida in the SEC Championship, that could mean only one SEC team gets into the playoff this year. While the Texas A&M Aggies are still alive, they are only still alive by a thread. Should all three of those teams as well as Georgia make it to New Year’s Six games, that could be too much for the ACC to overcome, even if Notre Dame or Clemson win it all.

So where could we see some movement heading into conference championship weekend? The big key here is seeing what Florida does vs. LSU this weekend. A two-loss Florida team has no shot of making the playoff. A third loss for either Iowa State or Oklahoma would be an issue, as would a single loss for either Colorado or USC. This will all shake out over time in the next week or so.

Which Power 5 conference is the best heading into Week 15 of the 2020 college season?

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