*Seeds:
1 Texas
2 Oregon
3 Miami
4 BYU
5 Ohio State
6 Penn State
7 Georgia
8 Alabama
9 LSU
10 Indiana
11 Texas A&M
12 Boise State
*Seeds are not what the teams are ranked. Miami and BYU are not ranked third and fourth in the country. They are the three and four seeds due to the top four highest-ranked conference champions being the top four seeds and receiving byes. The fifth-highest-ranked conference champion gets a spot in the playoff. Boise State is not ranked 12th in the country.
Alabama remains behind Georgia due to their loss at Vanderbilt. Despite the head-to-head victory, Georgia hasn’t lost to a bad team, while the Crimson Tide have.
Clemson, Iowa State and Notre Dame are the first teams out. Notre Dame has a poor SOS, and might not be able to overcome their early-season loss to Northern Illinois. Clemson has taken care of business in their last five games, but the best team they have played is either NC State or Stanford. Clemson has to beat a team that at least has a winning record to earn more serious consideration for a playoff spot, especially considering their 34-3 loss to Georgia in Week One. Iowa State is playing well and in the running for the Big 12, but their best win is against Iowa, a team in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten, by one. At this point, BYU Is still the favorite to win the Big 12.
LSU makes their way into the playoff despite not leading against Ole Miss until the final whistle. The Tigers have Texas A&M and Alabama left on their schedule. With the difficulty of their SOS, if LSU wins their other four games, they could still be a playoff contender with three losses. They would need to pick up wins over Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and Florida, which would add to their resume which already includes wins over Ole Miss and South Carolina. The loss to USC in week one hurts them. If they beat A&M, they should be in for sure.
Oregon takes over the Big Ten title spot after beating Ohio State, 32-31. Ohio State is still one of the top teams in the country and this loss doesn’t change their place in the playoffs much.
Texas A&M gets the last spot in the playoff. Don’t look now but Texas A&M is first in the SEC at 3-0 and has two ranked teams left on their schedule. Their emphatic win against Missouri is better than any team on the bubble right now. Who knows what happened to quarterback Connor Weigman while he was hurt, but he suddenly looks like the five-star player Aggie fans were hoping for. Elko and the staff were talking about benching Weigman for Marcel Reed and continuing the search for a quarterback after ten years of mediocrity at the position. The best Texas A&M teams are run first, pass second and Elko has established that. Junior Le’Veon Moss ran for 138 yards and 3 touchdowns on 12 carries. Off Moss’s success, Weigman was able to throw for 276 yards on 18-for-22.
Tennessee is also in contention for a playoff spot, but their wins against NC State and Oklahoma look worse every week. The Volunteers need to make statements for the rest of the season, and that starts with Alabama on Saturday.
A good rule to live by in life is to respect any man with guts. Curt Cignetti in his introductory press conference saying, “I win. Google me,” and then starting 6-0 and having a great path to the playoff is admirable. Indiana looks like a playoff contender and people will get the chance to watch them in the coming weeks. The Hoosiers play Nebraska at home on October 19th and then get Michigan at home on November 9th before a bye leading into facing Ohio State in Columbus on November 23rd. Michigan is struggling to get anything started on offense and their defense is not getting any time to rest. Having byes going into your two biggest games is an advantage.
The issue for the ACC is Miami doesn’t play Clemson, SMU or Pitt and Clemson only plays Pitt out of the three. The ACC is already weak, but if the top teams are not playing each other, it will be hard to gain an at-large spot in the playoff.
BYU holds the Big 12 automatic qualifying spot at the moment.BYU’s win against SMU is better than anything the Cyclones have. Neither team will separate until one of them loses a game. The Big 12 spot is a tossup between BYU and Iowa State and since they both won, BYU stays in the playoff projection.
Boise State is the clear-cut favorite for the Group of Five playoff spot, but look out for Army and Navy. Since by land and by sea are taken, the Broncos need to prove e that they can do it in the air. We know Boise can run the ball, but they are inconsistent in the passing game. If they cannot get the passing game figured out, they leave the door open for the AAC champion to take that final playoff spot.
Group of Five Power Rankings:
- Boise State
- Army
- UNLV
- Navy
