Tag: 2021 College Football Playoff

The 2021 College Football Playoff is set

The CFP selection committee releases their fifth and final edition of the 2021 College Football Playoff Rankings.

The final rankings for the 2021 College Football Playoff are officially locked in.

The No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes (6-0) will face the No. 2 Clemson Tigers (10-1) in the Allstate Sugar Bowl, while the No. 4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (10-1) will play the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide (11-0) in the Capital One Rose Bowl Game.

The first two teams left out were No. 5 Texas A&M (8-1) and No. 6 Oklahoma (8-2).

Yesterday, on championship Saturday, Alabama and Ohio State secured SEC and Big Ten championships in much closer games than expected.  Even with the close games, that pretty much locked those two into playoff spots.

Clemson handed Notre Dame its first loss of this season as the Tigers went on to win the ACC Championship Game.  The game was a blowout in favor of Clemson by 24 points and caused the Irish to drop two spots.

The biggest question marks on the final rankings are Texas A&M and Cincinnati.  Jimbo fisher’s Aggies had a whopping victory over Tennessee, while Cincinnati took down Tulsa to win the AAC Championship.

Cincinnati finished the season undefeated but were left out of the top-6, having many fans outraged with the selection committee’s decisions.  The biggest argument is that these non power-5 conferences will never have a shot of making it into the top-4.  Cincinnati actually dropped in the rankings in weeks that they didn’t even play leading up to the fifth and final CFP Rankings.

Texas A&M only dropped one game to the Crimson Tide in the second game of the year, having their fans scratching their heads at what Notre Dame was still doing there following a blowout loss to Clemson.

Regardless of what fans, coaches, players and analysts say, the committee’s decisions are final.  The seventh edition of the College Football Playoff is set to kickoff January 1st, 2021.

USA Today projects Ohio State in CFP championship game

USA Today has the Ohio State football program in the playoffs, and while who they play could change, there is some direction looking forward

We like to keep tabs on what our friend, USA TODAY’s Erick Smith, has for his lastest bowl projections each week, and so far he has Ohio State in the championship game playing for all the marbles. With the Buckeyes finally playing this week, that road starts in earnest Saturday against Nebraska. And with the Georgia loss, it looks like Notre Dame now has the inside track as well.

The first-round projections should be adjusted slightly as Smith had Ohio State playing Georgia. What it looks like now is Ohio State will probably play Alabama. With Notre Dame still having to play Clemson, one of them will be bumped once that game has been played. But we’ll how Smith has the pecking order when he releases his newest mock later this seek. Who the Buckeyes will play could change quite a bit before the end of the season.

There is still an outside chance Oklahoma State could sneak in as a Power Five team, but the Big 12 has not been overly impressive this year, and the committee could make some odd choices depending on how the rest of the season goes. The Big Ten as a whole has the chance to impress starting Saturday.

Of course, as it has been for a while now, the cream of the crop in the Big Ten is Ohio State. As long as the Buckeyes continue to win, they should consistently be in the final four projections no matter what kind of chaos breaks loose around them. We will track this throughout the season, but for now, Ohio State has a straight path to the championships.

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