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The final 2020 College Football Playoff rankings. Who’s No. 4? Who’s in the CFP?
The final 2020 College Football Playoff rankings. Who’s No. 4? Who’s in the CFP?
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Rest of the top 25 to come as it’s released.
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What will the College Football Playoff rankings be on Sunday? Here’s the final projection and top 25 prediction.
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What will the College Football Playoff rankings be on Sunday? Here’s the best guess.
Okay, so we’re here. It’s top for the College Football Playoff final top 25 rankings to come out, and it’s time to finally know who gets to play in the big four-team tournament. The best projection and top 25 prediction is …
The eight wins stand out. It was the only team to beat Liberty, it hung tough with Miami, and it ended up being one of the five or six beat teams in the ACC.
The 27-24 loss to Cincinnati should be enough to earn more respect than this, but the loss to Oklahoma State to start the season will be what keeps the Golden Hurricane down this far. It was still a magnificent year.
The Cowboys died down the stretch … sort of. They lost three of their last six games and beat up the Big 12’s bad teams, but they won’t bounce out of the top 25 after being firmly in it the week before.
Texas deserves a better ranking than this. The loss at home to TCU hurts, but the other losses were to Oklahoma and Iowa State, and all three defeats were this close to going the other way.
Louisiana gets the shaft in all of this. It beat Iowa State, the one loss is to unbeaten Coastal Carolina, and there wasn’t a chance to prove that it might actually be the Sun Belt’s best team with the rematch with the Chanticleers called off.
There weren’t any great wins, and the loss to Oregon was devastating. Had USC won in a blowout in the Pac-12 Championship, it would’ve had an interesting case for the fourth spot considering ow everything shook out.
This will tidy everything up. The losses to Oregon and Oregon State won’t exactly be brushed aside, but what amounted to a road win at USC for the Pac-12 champion will move the Ducks up hither than the Trojans to make it all easy to put everything in order.
This might be a little low. The blowout loss to North Carolina still hurts, but wins over NC State and Pitt are solid, and the 31-14 victory over Conference USA champion UAB looks a lot better now.
The Cougars are off to the Boca Raton Bowl to face UCF after a very fun and very exciting season. There aren’t a ton of massive wins, but there are enough good ones to be ranked a bit higher than this. It doesn’t matter – the Cougars are already settled into a bowl game.
The losses to Purdue and Northwestern happened to start the season, but a six-game winning streak to close things out was impressive. However, there wasn’t a win over anyone with a winning regular-season record. Even so, there were enough good victories to be in the top 16.
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The Tar Heels were impressive enough against Miami last week to hang around the top 15, and the loss to Notre Dame wasn’t awful. The losses to Florida State and Virginia might push the Tar Heels lower, but nothing much happened to knock the team down too much.
Call this a wish ranking, because it’s the right thing to do. San Jose State not only went unbeaten with a Mountain West Championship, but it won all seven games by double-digit. Beating Nevada and Boise State should help earn the Spartans top 15 consideration.
The Cats fought the good fight in the Big Ten Championship loss to Ohio State, and the win over Iowa now looks terrific, but the loss to Michigan State stings. It was a terrific season to get to the second Big Ten title game in three years.
The committee still won’t get this right. It should put one-loss Louisiana ahead of Iowa State – the Ragin’ Cajuns beat the Cyclones – but it’ll get the unbeaten Chanticleers up higher since it’s the one team that beat the team that beat the team. There will be some call that they should be in the top ten, but being this high will be terrific.
It’s going to be one of the biggest drama aspects of the rankings – will Indiana get ahead of Iowa State to be in the New Year’s Six? There’s no fantastic win, but there also aren’t the three losses like the Cyclones have.
The newest CFP ranking makes clear: Only a few teams every year actually have a chance to make the playoff and play for a national title.
This is a strange year to be certain, but the latest College Football Playoff ranking, which came out on Tuesday, reinforces something that’s sadly true every year: Only a select group of teams every year actually have a chance to make the playoff and play for a national title.
Two undefeated teams, Cincinnati and Coastal Carolina, are nowhere near the top four in the rankings this week despite remaining undefeated. Cincinnati, who didn’t play this week, dropped to 9, and is now trailing Iowa State, Georgia, and Florida, who just blew a game to a bad LSU team thanks to a shoe toss. All three of Iowa State, Georgia, and Florida have two losses.
Coastal Carolina sits at 12th. The school needed a late touchdown to beat Troy and remain undefeated, but apparently only winning by a touchdown isn’t enough to even crack the top 10.
Cynics will say that the CFP is loading the dice here. The members of the committee don’t want to rank a team like Cincinnati too high, and especially don’t want to rank Cincy ahead of Florida, because if Florida beats Alabama in the SEC championship game, then the committee might be forced to [dramatic music plays] not have an SEC team in the playoff.
I have no idea if the members are that cynical. I pray they’re not, and honestly — Alabama is probably going to the playoff whether the Crimson Tide win or lose.
What I do know is this: At this point, if you’re not in a Power 5 conference, you’re playing in a different league. You quite simply cannot win.
It doesn’t matter how perfect you are, how badly you beat your opponents, how many big wins against Top-25 schools you can possibly record — you can’t get in. The members of the committee will hit you with the “eye test” argument, shrug their shoulders, and call it a day.
There's no need for actual game results, advanced metrics or selection criteria if you just decide the teams you like before you start the season and never change your mind.
— Nicole Auerbach 😷 (@NicoleAuerbach) December 16, 2020
And by the “eye test” they may be right! Those P5 schools may be more talented. But doesn’t a team like Cincinnati deserve the chance to find out? Iowa State, Florida and Georgia have had their chances against these big schools, and they lost. It’s been settled.
This is true every year, of course. UCF has showed us time and time again it doesn’t matter how perfect you are, you’re not getting in. The latest rankings during this strange year only reinforce it.
There are ways to fix this. The easiest: Expand the playoff to eight teams and let a couple mid-majors in to see what happens. It’s one extra round of games, and, you know, would make it so half of the DI schools and their fan bases feels like there’s actually point to any of this.
Otherwise, the message the committee is sending to these schools is: It doesn’t matter how perfect you are, you don’t have a chance.
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10 quick reactions and what we learned from the from the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings of 2020d
10 quick reactions and what we learned from the from the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings of 2020.
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– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
10. Yeah, it really is all about the top four in the College Football Playoff, and potentially the top 12 for the bigger bowls, but how much fun is this if you’re San Jose State?
Out of all the bad things going on in the world, and after all the down years by the big names, one of the toughest of all programs to win at is unbeaten, in the Mountain West Championship, and in the College Football Playoff Top 25 at No. 24.
9. The College Football Playoff committee sort of put itself in a bind when it comes to the Group of Five’s New Year’s Six spot.
If it really believes that Louisiana is 19 and Tulsa is 23, if Coastal Carolina destroys the Ragin’ Cajuns in the Sun Belt Championship, and Cincinnati struggles in any way in the AAC title game against the Golden Hurricane, the 11 Chanticleers need to move ahead of the 9 Bearcats, otherwise.
8. It doesn’t really matter, but Georgia probably deserves a little more love than the 8. There might not be an amazing win, but its losses were to Alabama and Florida away from home, JT Daniels wasn’t the starting quarterback yet, six of the last seven games have been away from Athens, and the team is playing really, really well.
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7. I don’t think Cincinnati or Coastal Carolina or any Group of Five team deserves to be anywhere near the College Football Playoff – playing one good game isn’t the same as playing a weekly Power Five schedule – but it still totally and completely stinks that there’s NOTHING any of these teams can do to be in the top four.
I’m done honking about Iowa State – it’s playing really well – but if you’re unbeaten Coastal Carolina, and you’re the only team to beat the team – Louisiana – that beat the CFP 6 Cyclones in their house, and you’re ranked 12, you’re rightly ticked.
6. Very, very quietly, Indiana might be cemented into a New Year’s Six game. Oklahoma or Iowa State will lose in the Big 12 Championship, the committee almost certainly won’t put two Group of Five programs – Coastal Carolina and Cincinnati – in, and Northwestern at 14 likely won’t beat Ohio State to take a second spot for the Big Ten.
5. Relax when it comes to USC at 13. It only moved up two spots, and no, there’s no reason to give 5-0 Ohio State any more credit at No. 4 than the 5-0 Trojans are receiving, but remember – it’s all about winning the Power Five conference championships. Also, what do we know about the College Football Playoff committee? It loves bright shiny objects. What does that mean?
USC – when it comes to the committee – is probably coming into the Pac-12 Championship down 30. It has to annihilate the Ducks. Which leads to …
4. Enough. We have GOT to eliminate the concept of the eye test. Anyone who uses those words when analyzing college football teams can’t properly verbalize why some team is ranked as high as it is.
Analysts say “eye test” as a crutch because it doesn’t mean anything. The eye test is almost always an excuse for a bad resumé.
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3. Freaking out that your team is close to the top four and not in? Let me try to help. In the first seven years of the College Football Playoff rankings, only one time – 2016 with Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Washington – were the top four in the penultimate rankings. In five of the other six years, a team ranked 5th-8th got in.
Auburn in 2017 was the only No. 2 from the penultimate rankings to get knocked out, and TCU in 2014 – despite obliterating Iowa State – was the only No. 3 to get shoved aside.
2. Why are we just assuming Texas A&M is only the fifth-best team?
Yeah, Clemson didn’t have Trevor Lawrence and it still almost beat Notre Dame on the road – there’s no real argument against the Tigers – but Texas A&M lost a game on the road to Alabama. That’s it.
The argument could be made that Clemson doesn’t have a win as good as A&M’s win over Florida – but this isn’t an anti-Clemson argument. A&M getting trucked by Bama 52-24, and no one wanting to see a rematch in the College Football Playoff, isn’t a reason to potentially leave it out of the top four.
1. This is actually going to be a lot more boring than we’re making it out to be.
Ohio State almost certainly isn’t losing to Northwestern. The committee has been hell-bent on making sure this team is in, and that’s not about to change.
Alabama is in no matter what. Florida could dominate in a win and the Crimson Tide would still have one of the four best resumés.
The ACC Championship winner is in, and if it’s Clemson by 10ish or fewer, there’s no real argument and there we go.
Alabama vs. Notre Dame in the Sugar, and Clemson vs. Ohio State in the Rose.
Any variance on that gets Texas A&M in ahead of a two-loss Big 12 champ, and while the idea of USC would be fun … nah. Too big a leap at this point.
But that’s why they play the games – and wait until Sunday for the rankings that matter.
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The results from the penultimate round of the College Football Playoff top 25 rankings, released December 15th.
The results from the penultimate round of the College Football Playoff top 25 rankings, released December 15th.
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What will the 2020 College Football Playoff top 25 rankings be when the next-to-last round is released on Tuesday night?
What will the 2020 College Football Playoff top 25 rankings be when the next-to-last round is released on Tuesday night?
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How awesome are the College Football Playoff rankings? Who else uses the word penultimate?
Here’s the last practice exercise – sorry, the penultimate rankings projection – before this gets real on Sunday. Don’t read too much into this week, but how far up will USC move? How far down will Florida fall? This will at least show where everyone stands – sort of – going into the conference championships.
Trying to read the room in Grapevine, Texas …
Last Week College Football Playoff Ranking: 21
The Case For This Spot: Flip a coin between Colorado and Liberty for this spot. The Buffs weren’t awful against Utah in the loss – the 38-21 final score is a bit worse than the game was – but wins over UCLA, Stanford and San Diego State are stronger now.
Up Next: Possible Bowl Game
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Last Week College Football Playoff Ranking: Not Ranked
The Case For This Spot: This might be way, way, way too low. The Spartans are not just 6-0 in what’s turning into one of the best seasons in the program’s history; they’ve won all six by double-digits including a 30-20 performance against Nevada.
Up Next: Boise State (Mountain West Championship)
Last Week College Football Playoff Ranking: 24
The Case For This Spot: There won’t be any real movement after not being able to play Cincinnati last week, but get the job done in the American Athletic Conference Championship, and the Golden Hurricane should be up in the top 15 – at least.
Up Next: Cincinnati (AAC Championship)
Last Week College Football Playoff Ranking: 23
The Case For This Spot: Closing out with a four-game winning streak was enough to get the Wolfpack some top 25 love, and now it’s time to move up just a bit.
Up Next: Possible Bowl Game
Last Week College Football Playoff Ranking: 24
The Case For This Spot: Destroying Baylor 42-3 will move up the Cowboys a few spots. The losses in three of the last six games will be enough to keep them just outside of the top 20, but they’ll get close.
Up Next: Possible Bowl Game
LSU beat Florida 37-34 in one of the biggest shockers of 2020. What does it all mean for the College Football Playoff? Who’s the big winner?
LSU beat Florida 37-34 in one of the biggest shockers of the season. What does it all mean for the College Football Playoff? Who’s the big winner?
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– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
LSU hit its kick, Florida didn’t, and it turned into a shocking 37-34 Tiger win to throw the College Football Playoff situation into a tailspin.
So …
Florida is out of the College Football Playoff.
Maybe.
There might be a way the Gators could slide on into the CFP if they annihilate Alabama in the SEC Championship, and if Notre Dame blows out Clemson in the ACC Championship and/or Northwestern shocks Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship.
No, Cincinnati isn’t getting in, and no, a two-loss Big 12 champion wouldn’t get in over a two-loss Florida that beats the one of ones in Alabama.
The Gators blew it. All they had to do was win this against a mediocre-to-bad LSU, and the CFP was there for the taking against Bama. That’s all but gone.
The ACC.
Florida’s loss all but locks Notre Dame into the College Football Playoff no matter what – check that; barring some 41-3ish wipeout, and then things get crazy – and it allows for Clemson to possibly sneak in at the 4 seed if it loses to the Irish in a replica of the earlier season classic.
Notre Dame’s big fear was a loss to Clemson, an Ohio State win, and a Florida upset over Alabama. If that happened, the Irish would’ve almost certainly have been out. That’s off the table now.
– Week 15 Scoreboard, Results, Predictions
Texas A&M.
The Aggies need to clear up the traffic ahead of them, and that included Florida – even though the Gators, because they controlled their own destiny, were a spot lower in the College Football Playoff rankings.
They still have that win over Florida, so now they need 1) Florida to beat Alabama in a close game – making that win over the Gators to be that much stronger, and/or 2) Notre Dame to obliterate Clemson – knocking out a two-loss Tiger team – and/or 3) a Northwestern win over Ohio State.
It’s not an easy path, but the Florida loss takes away the likelihood of it being Alabama, Clemson, Florida, and Ohio State or Notre Dame if the Gators beat Bama.
USC.
No, it’s not going to happen, but with the big comeback win over UCLA, the Trojans are still somewhat alive in the College Football Playoff hunt.
It would take a whole lot of minor miracles, and a philosophical debate in the CFP committee room, but there still might be some love and respect thrown USC’s way if Alabama, Notre Dame and Ohio State win to make it possible for four unbeaten Power Five champs to be in.
Florida losing makes it easy to move USC up from 15 to around 9ish – at least there will be some movement.
The SEC.
The conference had a chance of getting two teams into the College Football Playoff, but now it’ll likely be just one.
More than that, though, the SEC Championship becomes a bit of an exhibition. Alabama is in the College Football Playoff as long as it doesn’t get destroyed, and Florida winning probably doesn’t matter.
Actually … nothing.
The original projection was that Florida was going to lose to Alabama and go to the Orange Bowl. The bigger change is that it’s going to be against North Carolina and not Miami playing in Hard Rock Stadium.
If the Gators don’t go to the Orange, they’re still going to end up in a New Year’s Six game, and so will Georgia and Texas A&M. All three were originally likely to be in, anyway.
So after all of that, the original call still stands. Assume it’s Alabama vs. Notre Dame in the Sugar, and Ohio State and Clemson in the Rose.
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Five reactions and what we learned from the from the third College Football Playoff rankings of 2020. Who’s the big sleeper in this?
Five reactions and what we learned from the from the second College Football Playoff rankings of 2020.
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– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– 15 Best Wins So Far
– Ohio State is in the Top 4
– New Year’s Six Situation
– What it all really means
How is Indiana still just 12? The Hoosier were 12th last week, rocked a then-CFP-ranked Wisconsin in Madison, and the only loss is to Ohio State. Meanwhile, Oklahoma lost to a bad Kansas State team – okay so it was different then with a healthy starting QB – at home, and is 7-2 and stayed at 11.
The College Football Playoff committee really is going with the recency thing. Iowa State lost 31-14 to Louisiana and dropped the date to an Oklahoma State team that has done nothing since. However, the team is playing better, and blowing out West Virginia is better than it looks. On the full resumé, Iowa State doesn’t deserve the 7, but …
I get the anti-Georgia argument – there just aren’t a whole lot of good wins – but the No. 9 Bulldogs’ two losses are to Alabama and Florida, and now they’re better with JT Daniels at quarterback, Iowa State’s two losses are to Louisiana and Oklahoma State.
Northwestern wasn’t punished enough for that loss to Michigan State. The Cats are hanging in there at 14, even though the Spartans got destroyed by Ohio State last week.
The one under-the-radar that really matters … Iowa at 16 up from 19. Now, if it beats Wisconsin this week, a game against Ohio State takes on a bigger significance. If the Buckeyes aren’t playing in the Big Ten Championship, and they beat a 15ish-ranked Iowa, that’s about the same rankings-wise as beating Northwestern in the title game.
Coastal Carolina and BYU swapped spots. The Chanticleers are 13 and Cougars are 18. Now, if CCU goes unbeaten and wins the Sun Belt title, it’s right on the edge of New Year’s Six consideration no matter what Cincinnati does.
– 15 Best Wins So Far
– Ohio State is in the Top 4
– New Year’s Six Situation
– What it all really means
After another week off, the Georgia Bulldogs slid from No. 8 to No. 9 in the most recent College Football Playoff rankings
After another week off, the Georgia Bulldogs slid from No. 8 to No. 9 in the most recent College Football Playoff rankings. Two-loss Iowa State jumped Georgia to move up to No. 7. The Cyclones opened the season with a blowout defeat against Louisiana Lafayette.
The top-five remained the same. There has been very little change at the top this season:
1. Alabama
2. Notre Dame
3. Clemson
4. Ohio State
5. Texas A&M
Georgia is one of five SEC teams in the top-25. Florida sits at No. 6 and the Missouri Tigers, Georgia’s next scheduled opponent, moved into the No. 25 ranking after a shootout win over Arkansas.
The Dawgs’ offense has been on another level with JT Daniels at quarterback. There aren’t eight teams that are better than Georgia. But with two loses, Georgia’s College Football Playoff hopes have been dashed.
The full top-25 is as follows:
1. Alabama
2. Notre Dame
3. Clemson
4. Ohio State
5. Texas A&M
6. Florida
7. Iowa State
8. Georgia
9. Cincinnati
10. Miami
11. Oklahoma
12. Indiana
13. Coastal Carolina
14. Northwestern
15. USC
16. Iowa
17. North Carolina
18. BYU
19. Louisiana Lafayette
20. Texas
21. Colorado
22. Oklahoma State
23. North Carolina State
24. Tulsa
25. Missouri
Overall, much of college football’s drama is slated for next week. The SEC Championship and ACC Championship will have a huge influence on the College Football Playoff.
The latest CFP rankings are out and with no huge upsets this weekend the top remained unchanged.
The College Football Playoff committee released their updated standings on Tuesday night and after no significant upsets this past weekend, there were no real shakeups towards the top.
Numbers one through four all stayed the same as Alabama, Notre Dame, Clemson and Ohio State again fell in line there.
The first two out remain the same as well as Texas A&M and Florida checked in fifth and sixth.
Cincinnati, who will play Tulsa twice in the coming weeks is eighth while Iowa State jumped them win an impressive win, Georgia and Miami (FL) round out the top ten.
Aside from No. 3 Clemson, North Carolina is the only other Notre Dame opponent from this season that checked into these rankings as the Tar Heels can be found at No. 17 after their easy win this past Saturday.
The entire new College Football Playoff Rankings:
1. Alabama
2. Notre Dame
3. Clemson
4. Ohio State
5. Texas A&M
6. Florida
7. Iowa State
8. Cincinnati
9. Georgia
10. Miami, FL
11. Oklahoma
12. Indiana
13. Coastal Carolina
14. Northwestern
15. USC
16. Iowa
17. North Carolina
18. BYU
19. Wisconsin
20. Texas
21. Colorado
22. Oklahoma St.
23. NC State
24. Tulsa
25. Missouri
Take a look at the full #CFBPlayoff Top 25 rankings for games played through December 6.
Is your team in? 👀
🏈🏆
 pic.twitter.com/J9RA8Ep1TW— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) December 9, 2020
Big Ten Championship Game or not, it would certainly appear that Ohio State has done enough for the College Football Playoff committee that if they win their game against Iowa on December 19, that they’ll seemingly be headed to the CFP.
The big question I have in regards to Notre Dame is, say Florida actually beats Alabama in the SEC Championship and Clemson hands Notre Dame a loss. Are the Irish getting in?
My initial thought would be no because it really feels like a foregone conclusion to me that Ohio State will be getting in.
