Predictions for College Football Playoff Top 25
One Evergreen columnist weighs in on what he thinks will happen
November 4, 2019
The AP Poll for Week 11 has been released. Now, I usually give a review on the AP Poll to point out its accuracies and inaccuracies, but this time I will give my predictions on who the college football playoff committee will put in the top 25 on Tuesday.
The Top Four:
The committee likes to base their rankings on “resumes” and how the team looks in its conference so far. Based on this style, I expect the top four to be LSU, Ohio State, Alabama and Penn State, in that order. I don’t have Clemson in the playoff for two reasons. Its strength of schedule is absolutely abysmal, and the team has not proved that they are capable of being that dominant team they were last year.
LSU has beat three top 10 teams this year so far, and they play Alabama this week, which is by far their toughest test of the season.
Ohio State looks complete on both sides of the ball. They blow out their opponents and their strength of schedule is not great, but they held a good Wisconsin team to seven points at home and look to be the Big 10 champion favorite.
Alabama has not played anyone. Like Ohio State, the Crimson Tide has not played anyone significant to boost their resume, except a shambling Texas A&M team on the road. They play LSU in a college football game of the year candidate on Saturday.
Penn State over Clemson? Of course. I believe Penn State is better in and out of its conference. They still have Minnesota, which is ranked, Ohio State and a good Indiana football team. Overall, I believe Penn State keeps proving itself as a top team in the country.
The rest of the top 25:
As for the rest of the rankings, I believe that Clemson, Oregon, Georgia, Utah, Oklahoma and Florida will round out the top 10, in that order. Oregon is proving that the Pac-12 deserves recognition. Georgia had a season-saving win against Florida in Jacksonville, Florida. Utah got their revenge win against Washington in Seattle. Oklahoma is looking to rebound after that close loss to Kansas State.
For 11-20, the ranking should be Auburn, Minnesota, Baylor, Michigan, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Iowa, Memphis, Cincinnati and Kansas State. Minnesota, Memphis and Kansas State are the dangerous teams that no one should be excited to face. Baylor got exposed on offense against West Virginia on Halloween with the lack of offense in the first half. Michigan has two losses but looks to revive their season after their impressive home victory against Notre Dame.
Notre Dame, Iowa and Wisconsin don’t look as dominant as a lot of analysts predicted at the beginning of the season.
Auburn still has to face Alabama in a potential spoiler game, but the two losses to Florida and LSU are proving that the SEC is hard to get through.
The rest of the top 25 should have Wake Forest, Boise State, SMU, San Diego State and Navy at the bottom. Navy and SMU, in the American Conference, are having record-setting seasons. Boise State and San Diego State, in the Mountain West Conference, both lead their divisions. Wake Forest is trying to prove that the ACC is not as overhyped as the conference seems to be, even though it is overhyped.