Top 8 College Football Playoff Chase Rankings
8. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (9-1)
Total honesty time – this might be the most interesting team in the College Football Playoff era to figure out, and I can’t do it yet.
The Irish are going to blow past Georgia Tech and at Stanford to go 11-1.
The resumé will be fantastic with nine wins over Power Five teams when all is said and done, highlighted by a 41-13 game-wasn’t-as-bad-as-the-score-but-whatever win over Wisconsin, and double-digit victories over Purdue, North Carolina, and Virginia.
The CFP committee likely won’t move the Irish past Cincinnati because of the 24-13 loss at home, but there might be a huge debate. If Cincinnati continues to be hot meh against miserable teams, it’s going to be hard to ignore Notre Dame’s overall body of work.
Now, if Cincinnati loses – and it certainly could if it keeps playing like it has over the last three weeks – then it gets really interesting. The College Football Playoff committee LOVES Power Five champs, and past Irish teams got in when they were either unbeaten, or last year when they were 12-0 with a win over Clemson before losing in the ACC Championship.
11-1 isn’t 12-1.
Note Dame will need some help, but again … watch out. It’ll be lurking in this.
7. Michigan Wolverines (9-1)
It might not be the most spectacular of teams, and it took a massive play to get by Penn State, and a stop to get past Nebraska, and it was a fight to get by Rutgers.
But you know what this is going to come down to.
The Wolverines aren’t going to blow it at Maryland this week – that’s not how Jim Harbaugh teams ruin their chances at greatness. It’ll win that, and then Ohio State comes to Ann Arbor.
As long as the Buckeyes get by Michigan State this weekend, the regular season finale will be for Big Ten East. It could happen – this Ohio State defense is very, very beatable – and Michigan could go on to win a rematch against Wisconsin or beat Iowa or Minnesota in the Big Ten Championship.
The opportunity is there. Let’s just say we’ve seen this movie before, and it doesn’t end well.
6. Cincinnati Bearcats (10-0)
There might not be any other choice when all the smoke clears.
If Cincinnati goes 13-0 and doesn’t get in, it won’t be because of some College Football Playoff committee bias, or blue blood program conspiracies, or anything other than one brutally harsh reality.
This team hasn’t played anything like it needed to against a schedule full of absolutely nothing.
The schedule is the schedule, but if you’re a Group of Five team looking for respect, you have to be obliterating horrible teams like Navy, and Tulane, and Tulsa, and USF when everyone is paying attention, and Cincinnati can’t do it.
Outside of Notre Dame, Cincinnati hasn’t beaten anyone else that beat a Power Five team – and that includes Indiana.
It took a kick return to save the day against the Hoosiers in a 38-24 win. Ohio State beat them 54-7. Rutgers just beat them 38-3.
Now, with all of that said, the committee isn’t going to move Notre Dame past Cincinnati unless there’s a loss.
Is Oregon going to beat Utah twice? Probably not. Is Wake Forest going to be 12-1? Nah. Is Alabama going to beat Georgia? A whole lot of people think so, but probably not.
What other choice you got, son?
It might be 13-0 Georgia, a one-loss Big Ten champ, a one-loss Big 12 champ, and no other options but to give 13-0 Cincinnati a shot.
But first, it has to beat SMU, win at East Carolina – that’s WAY more dangerous than you think – and likely take down Houston in the AAC Championship.