College football: Updated ESPN FPI Ratings Through Week 9

You have to pick it right now: Which four teams are making the playoff?

As Week 9 of the college football season has come and gone, we turn the calendar to November and start to look for the teams that are going to make runs to the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six bowl games.

This year there are plenty of teams alive for both with some interesting candidates starting to somewhat separate themselves from the rest of the field.

How many teams can realistically win a national championship this season?  And who are the ones most likely to?

Who has the hardest tests the rest of the season and who has the easier tracks?

Is Notre Dame closer to being seen as a contender than we may tend to think?

ESPN releases their Football Power Index each week to handicap how teams match up.  They did so following Week 9 of the college football season and here is how the top 25 teams nationally turned out.

College football rankings: Kirk Herbstreit updates his Top 6

Is unbeaten USC one of the six best teams in the country?

ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit releases his college football Top 6 on a weekly basis, giving who his four College Football Playoff teams would be at the moment while sharing the top-two that are knocking on the door of entry.

Last week Herbstreit moved Ohio State to the top spot after Georgia struggled on the road at lowly Missouri. Did Herbstreit keep his six the same as a week ago or did he make another change or two this week?

What did Alabama’s narrow victory over Texas A&M mean for the Crimson Tide in Herbstreit’s rankings?  Did the Buckeyes rout at Michigan State further solidify themselves as number-one in his eyes?

And did Oklahoma State stay ranked ahead of USC this week after passing the Trojans and gaining entry to the top six a week ago?