College Football Playoff Ranking Prediction (11/10)

What a weekend of college football! Fantastic match-ups across the board resulted in some fun contests to watch and a couple of upset sprinkled in. So, after this weekend here are my College Football Playoff predictions for the rankings coming out this week.

Top 4

This week could be a little tricky for the committee considering how Ohio State under performed and the romping that Oklahoma State put on TCU, However, when it shakes out I think the committee was already not high on TCU, they were undefeated and ranked 8th last week, and that will keep Oklahoma State from moving into the top 4. Clemson is the clear #1 team in the country, especially after the ground out win they had over a really good Florida State team. As for the #2 spot, I think Alabama deserve it at this point; holding Fournette to 40 yard and no TDs is about as impressive as anything in college football this season. Finally, I think Notre Dame get the #4 nod due to the all around consistent play they have been putting up all season. They play good defense and have a legit offense that can score in a multitude of ways. 

Hard to Place

There is a lot of room for movement in the #6 to #13 range and it'll be interesting to see how the committee wants to handle all these one loss teams.

I think Baylor still hangs around at #6 with just an 'ok' win at K State but they are definitely trending downward, 

Then there is the curious case of Iowa. I don't expect them to jump over a 1 loss LSU but they are undefeated and, in my mind, should be over Stanford, Florida, and Utah. However, the committee could use their so-so win over a bad Indiana team to basically keep them stagnant somewhere around 9/10. 

We saw last week that the committee was ready to reward an undefeated Memphis team for beating Ole Miss and placed them at #13. Clearly that was premature after Memphis had an awful game against Navy, losing 45-20. Now itll be interesting to see if the committee has any reservation about an undefeated Houston team, I expect to see Houston around the #19 spot; still behind teams like Florida State, Northwestern, and Mississippi. the committee could see this differently and place them as high as #15.

Final Four Prediction

Every week after the slate of games I'll be releasing my prediction on what the final four teams will be. We are still over a month out but the light at the end of the  tunnel is definitely visible.

1) Clemson (13-0) ACC Champ

2) Ohio State (13-0) Big Ten Champ 

3) Alabama (12-1) SEC Champ

4) Stanford (12-1) Pac-12 Champ

First Two Out

5) Oklahoma State (11-1) Loss to Oklahoma 

6) Baylor (11-1) Loss to Oklahoma State

Playoff

(1) Clemson vs. (4) Stanford: Clemson by 7

(2) Ohio State vs. (3) Alabama: Ohio State by 2

Clemson vs. Ohio State: Clemson by 4