3 college football Rivalry Week games with the most at stake
By John Buhler
2. USC must beat Notre Dame at home to keep the Pac-12 in the playoff picture
How the battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh shakes out between Notre Dame and USC will massively shape the College Football Playoff picture. If favored USC wins at home, the Trojans, and the Pac-12, are still alive to make the national semifinals. All USC would have to do is beat either Oregon or Washington in Las Vegas next week and hope that No. 1 ranked Georgia handles LSU in Atlanta.
Should Notre Dame play spoiler, USC and the Pac-12 are eliminated. It also opens up the possibility for Clemson to make its way in should the Tigers beat South Carolina and North Carolina to win the ACC as a one-loss champion. A USC loss also creates an easier pathway into the four-team field for the loser of The Game. The Trojans have the two hardest games left to play.
A one-loss Pac-12 champion USC may deserve to get in, but the Trojans really need LSU to lose…
1. Winner of The Game is the favorite to win the Big Ten and make the playoff
Whoever wins between Michigan and Ohio State in The Horseshoe will become an overwhelming favorite to make the College Football Playoff. That team would be 12-0 and could still possibly get in even if it were to somehow lose to Purdue or whoever coming out of the Big Ten West. As far as the loser, that team may not be mathematically eliminated from the playoff picture just yet…
LSU beating Georgia with two losses could sink The Game’s loser very badly. What the loser really needs is for Georgia to win the SEC undefeated, their rival to win the Big Ten undefeated and then hope for teams like Clemson, TCU and USC to mess up. The Big Ten can get two teams in, but it needs Georgia to be one of the other teams making it in for Michigan and Ohio State to make it in.
The winner of The Game will be seen across college football as the biggest threat to beat Georgia.
Next. Who can still make the College Football Playoff?. dark
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