The second College Football Playoff rankings came out Monday night, and WSU did not move up or drop as they remained No. 8 in the nation.

Despite a close victory over University of California, Berkeley, on Saturday, the Selection Committee decided to not move the Cougars up in the standings.

The biggest chance WSU has to move up is if No. 7 Louisiana State University (7-2), which lost to No. 1 University of Alabama on Saturday, dropped behind the Cougars in the standings.

Surprisingly, the committee did not think LSU should be ranked below the Cougars despite the fact that LSU has one more loss than WSU and has already been eliminated from the Southeastern Conference Championship game.

However, if WSU keeps winning, the committee will have no choice but to move the Cougars ahead of the Tigers. With that being said, all WSU can focus on is winning each of its remaining games if it wants any chance to make the College Football Playoffs.

Another thing holding the Cougars back in the rankings is the strength of their schedule. WSU had a fairly easy non-conference schedule of University of Wyoming, San Jose State University and Eastern Washington University, none of which are part of a Power 5 conference.

Not only that, but another key factor to making the playoffs as a one-loss team is winning against quality opponents. However, the two quality wins for the Cougars so far this season were against University of Utah and University of Oregon. Oregon currently is not ranked, making the win over Utah crucial. Unfortunately, Utah lost this past weekend to Arizona State University, devaluing the Cougars’ win over the Utes earlier this season.

Even with all of these aspects going against WSU, it is still ranked No. 8 in the nation and has a shot to make the playoffs. If they keep winning and some puzzle pieces fall into place, the Cougars can make a little noise and take a run to the title.