Last week's Ohio State loss shook the system up. The question is: how much?
In advance of Tuesday night's third rankings reveal (7 p.m. ET, ESPN), the FootballScoop staff has laid out how we see the top six teams in the country.
SCOTT (@FootballScoop)
No. 1
No. 2
No. 3
No. 4
LAST TWO OUT: and
ZACH (@zach_barnett)
No. 1 At this point, they're the No. 1 team until something crazy happens.
No. 2 Who has three wins better than at Ohio State, at Michigan and against Oregon. And who has a loss flukier than their shouldn't-have-counted setback at Nebraska?
No. 3 Notre Dame has two top 25 wins in Navy and Temple, plus a couple of solid victories in USC and Pittsburgh, and their win over Texas breaks the tie with Oklahoma.
No. 4The Sooners' defeat of Baylor looks five times better than it did last week, doesn't it? Oklahoma owns a solid win over TCU with an opportunity for a third in Oklahoma State this Saturday, not to mention all important "wins over above .500 teams" in West Virginia, Texas Tech and Tennessee.
LAST TWO OUT: and
Once again, Iowa's spot is irrelevant. Either the Hawkeyes will beat Nebraska and the Big Ten East champion and play their way into the Playoff, or they won't.
As for Alabama? The question the committee purportedly asks itself weekly is, "Who have you beaten?" Consider this: if Ole Miss beats Mississippi State on Saturday, the Tide could enter the SEC championship without a single top 25 win. They most certainly wouldn't have a top 20 win. And what if Florida State beats Florida this weekend, meaning a Tide SEC title win drops Alabama's best win to 10-3 on the year? So unlike Clemson, Michigan State, Notre Dame and Iowa, Alabama does not have a top 20 win. Something the Tide does have the other contenders do not? A home loss.
DOUG (@CoachSamz)
No. 1 Clemson will enter the CFB playoff as the #1 seed. Go ahead and write it in permanent marker.
No. 2 Saban's crew is playing scary good football and that could make the playoff interesting
No. 3Alabama, along with my latest addition to my group of six teams, may be playing the best football of any team in the country so they get my spot at #3.
No. 4 Without a conference title game, ND has to prove they belong with a convincing win over Stanford (who is playing pretty well right now) to stay here.
LAST TWO OUT: and
The Sooners escaped with a win over TCU, and now have the opportunity to make an even bigger statement in Stillwater against rival OK State.
I have two teams ranked above Michigan State right now, but the Spartans have a chance to build as impressive a resume as any one-loss team with games against Penn State and undefeated Iowa in the B1G title game, to go along with signature wins over Ohio State and Oregon. The Spartans could make things really, really interesting over the next few weeks.