The second edition of the College Football Playoff Rankings dropped on Tuesday night, and LSU moved up three spots from No. 10 to No. 7 after a huge win over the Alabama Crimson Tide in Week 10.
The Tigers are in an interesting position. They’re the top two-loss team in the rankings, and given the fact that they control their own destiny in the SEC West and are likely heading to Atlanta, they remain in the College Football Playoff conversation. In ESPN’s breakdown of the CFP rankings entering Week 11, Heather Dinich said that LSU could catalyze quite a bit of chaos in the SEC down the stretch.
At No. 7, LSU is exactly where it was expected to be — the committee’s highest-ranked two-loss team, but still behind No. 5 Tennessee because of the Oct. 8 head-to-head result. That doesn’t mean, though, that two-loss LSU can’t or won’t move up. If the Tigers somehow run the table and beat Georgia to win the SEC, they would likely become the first two-loss team in the CFP. Then the selection committee would also have a 12-1 Georgia team to consider as the SEC runner-up, and an 11-1 Vols team that hammered the SEC champs 40-13 in Baton Rouge during the regular season.
So then what?
It would depend in large part on what happened in the other Power 5 conference championship games. It’s a stretch to imagine the committee would really take three SEC teams, but if two-loss Utah wins the Pac-12, the Big 12 has a two-loss conference champion, and the loser of Ohio State-Michigan is beaten soundly, it’s not impossible. Especially considering the poor shape the ACC is in.
Things could certainly still end up being fairly chalky if Georgia wins the SEC, but if the Tigers can take care of business down the stretch and find a way to upset the Bulldogs, they will shake up the playoff race considerably.
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