The College Football Playoff committee has announced the top 25 teams heading into the conference finals week. It seems as if only the top 10 would have a potential chance of making it, but even then, it seems as if anybody out of the top seven does not have a good chance to make it.
The top seven teams in the country are as followed from number 1-7: Georgia, Michigan, Alabama, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, and Ohio State.
There are a few things to take away from these rankings. Let's take a dive into how it could shakeup.
Alabama stays at 3
This was a debate coming into the week after Alabama only beat an unranked Auburn team 24-22. Alabama already has a loss on the season so people felt that with this ugly win, they deserved to drop a spot. At the end of the day, they still went into Auburn and took down a tough SEC opponent. That's what the College Football Committee saw and decided they were going to leave them at number three heading into the final week.
Things could shake-up for Alabama if they do lose to Georgia in the SEC title game. If Alabama loses, they will be a two-loss team. That usually means that a team is not going to make the college football playoffs. Although Georgia has been by far the best team in the country this season, a loss for Alabama would probably seal the deal and they would finish outside of the top four.
The committee does love Alabama. There is a good chance that even if they lose this game, but keep it close, they still finish in the top four. It would be tough to argue with the committee's decision as they have said plenty of times that their goal is to get the best four teams in the country into the final four. Alabama is clearly one of the best teams in the country. There's really not much to debate about that.
OK State could get in with an Alabama loss
Oklahoma State has played some impressive football this season. They're going to look to continue to do so in their Conference Final. They're going to take on the number nine ranked team in the country, the Baylor Bears, on December 4th for the Big 12 championship. They will make the playoffs if they win the BIG12, and Alabama loses in the SEC final.
There is also a very high possibility that if Oklahoma State wins, Cincinnati would be the team out as the CFP committee would value a BIG12 Championship over anything that Cincinnati has done this season.
It wouldn't be very fair to Cincinnati considering that they are undefeated, but Oklahoma State has many more impressive wins throughout the season. They have beaten multiple ranked opponents including the number nine Baylor team that they will face on Saturday. They're also coming off an impressive win against the Oklahoma Sooners, in which they won 37-33. If they lose on Saturday to Baylor, their final four chances are gone. The committee will never put in a two-loss BIG12 team.
Ohio State has a crazy chance to still get in
It's unlikely that Ohio State is going to get into the final four, but there is still a good chance that they can. They're going to need a lot of things to go right so let's take a look at what exactly they need to happen.
They're going to need Michigan to lose in the Big Ten title game to the Iowa Hawkeyes. Michigan has played much better football all season than Iowa so it seems unlikely that they would walk away with a loss. In a game as big as the Big Ten Championship, anything is possible. Ohio State has to hope that Michigan losses to get into the College Football Playoffs.
Another possibility for them to get in would be Alabama losing to Georgia. Now the question would be, would the committee put in a two-loss SEC school or a two-loss BIG10 school? Ohio State has looked better than Alabama throughout the entire season. Alabama might get the edge due to some SEC bias, but Ohio State also plays in arguably a better conference in the Big Ten. If Alabama loses, there's no reason why Ohio State shouldn't be the team jumping Alabama.
If Oklahoma state was to lose as well, they would also jump them at the number five spot while eliminating Oklahoma State. This would be the perfect opportunity for Ohio State to possibly jump to the number four spot.
There is also a very good chance that the committee does not put Cincinnati in because they feel that their resume is not impressive enough.
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