4. The sneaky-interesting ranking was …
Auburn at 13 – it was the highest-ranked two-loss team.
It’s not going to happen, but everything you’re all talking about right now when it comes to Alabama winning out, apply that to Auburn, too, even with the two losses.
No two-loss team has ever made it into the College Football Playoff, but 2017 Auburn would’ve been the first and only one to do it had it beaten Georgia in the SEC Championship. Had it done that – it walloped the Bulldogs 40-17 earlier in the year, but lost to Clemson and LSU – it would’ve been in with two wins over Georgia and a victory over Alabama. The CFP would’ve been Bama, Oklahoma, Clemson, and Auburn.
Of course the College Football Playoff rankings don’t work like the other poll systems, but there’s a path for this year’s team, even with the road loss to Penn State and the loss to Georgia.
Beat at Texas A&M, Mississippi State, at South Carolina, and Alabama, and it’s off to the SEC Championship for a rematch against – almost certainly – Georgia. If it wins that, I think it’s in no matter what – the resumé would be way too strong.
– Oklahoma is more than okay, even at 9
– Arkansas really is the the one big whiff
– Cincinnati at 6 is fine … really
– Oregon isn’t necessarily safe at 4