College football rankings: Conference power rankings entering Championship Week

Michigan is finally king of the Big Ten, but as we head into conference championship week, there is still much to be decided in the NCAA conference power rankings.

It finally happened. Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan team beat the Ohio State Buckeyes. It was one of the wildest games of the weekend, but it was hardly THE wildest. Auburn blew a lead to Alabama to keep the Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff. They likely make it even with a loss to Georgia next week.

Oh, speaking of next week, we’ve moved past rivalry week and now we’re moving on to Championship Week. All of the Power 5 conferences will have their championship games this weekend. There are some major surprises. The ACC Championship Game doesn’t have Clemson playing in it for the first time in seven years. Oklahoma didn’t make the Big 12 championship game, and now their head coaching vacancy might be the most appealing in the country. More on that later. For now, let’s get into the conference rankings before one of the wildest weeks of the year.

College football conference rankings going into Championship Week

5. ACC

Clemson just beat the bricks off of South Carolina on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to send the Tigers to the ACC Championship Game. Pitt and Wake Forest will play for the title on Saturday despite the Tigers rolling as of late. Virginia Tech salvaged bowl eligibility against cross-state rival Virginia, but the same cannot be said for Florida State. There are just too many mediocre-to-bad teams in this conference right now. Even the best teams are ranked in the teens of the College Football Playoff rankings. The ACC needs to make some changes, and there will likely be some new coaches in the offseason.

4. Pac-12

One of the more fun championship games this weekend is the rematch between Oregon and Utah. The Utes beat the bricks off of the Ducks two weeks ago, but can they do it again? That’s a big question after Oregon bounced back last week. The biggest win of the weekend came at USC. No, they didn’t beat BYU (although they kept it close, and that’s a win for this year’s USC team), but they got the biggest fish on the coaching market in now-former Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley. He’s heading to Southern California with a massive deal in hand to rebuild one of the most storied programs in the country. This might be the last year the Pac-12 fights to stay out of the bottom of the standings.