Tag: cfp top 25

Path To The Playoff: 20 Teams In The College Football Playoff Hunt. Who Will Make It?

Going into Thanksgiving week, what 20 teams still have a shot at getting into the 2020-2021 College Football Playoff? Who will make the CFP?

Going into Thanksgiving week, what 20 teams still have a shot at getting into the 2020-2021 College Football Playoff? Who will make the CFP?

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Right about now in most college football seasons, we all have a handle on the teams realistically in the national championship and the College Football Playoff chase. This year it’s a whole lot more complicated.

The Pac-12 is just getting going – and yet, its season is almost over.

The SEC is winding down, the Big Ten is in the meat of its slate, and without the normal array of non-conference games, there are more Group of Five programs than ever with a crazy dream of slipping into the top four.

What 20 teams still have a path to the playoff?

A few ground rules here the apply to everyone on this list.

1. Talk COVID out of the equation. Any one of these programs could take a severe hit with an outbreak, and to be gross, several teams on this list only have a realistic shot if others aren’t able to go. But for now, for the sake of fun, let’s just assume – and hope, and pray – that everyone is safe and this all goes off without a hitch.

2. Even in this crazy year, let’s just stick with the norms. Go unbeaten and win your Power Five conference, and you’re a mortal lock to be in. This year, though, that’s not a sure thing for the Pac-12 champion. More on that in a bit.

3. No two-loss team has ever made it into the top four. Let’s assume that it’s not happening this year, either, which wipes out the Big 12. Also, any one loss team from a Group of Five conference – a team from the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt – realistically has no chance, either.

4. Realistically, no MAC team has any shot, either. This year it’s an all-MAC slate, so with no non-conference wins to go by, unbeaten Buffalo, Kent State, and Western Michigan teams were eliminated before the season even started.

Ranked by who has the lowest chance to make the College Football Playoff to who has the most realistic shot of getting in, here’s the path to the playoff for 20 teams still in the hunt.

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Path To The Playoff 
– Teams that will be told they can make the CFP (but really can’t)
– Teams that can make the CFP … with a LOT of help
– Teams that can make the CFP … with a little help
– Teams that control their CFP destiny
– 4 most likely teams to make the CFP

Path To The Playoff: The desperate long shots

20. Washington State Cougars (1-1)

This is crazy-town, but …

– Get healthy. the Cougars already missed one game and the Apple Cup against Washington is off.

– Schedule a few non-conference games to fit in. Playing anyone to get a win would be good, playing – and beating – someone like BYU would be a huge help.

– Win at USC in convincing fashion, rock Cal, and hope for Oregon and Washington to each lose twice.

– Somehow, through all of the madness, get to the Pac-12 Championship and win in a blowout.

– There have to be several multi-loss Power Five conference champions, and Wazzu has to be beyond amazing down the stretch.

Will Washington State Make The College Football Playoff? If this happens, that means we’ll have experienced the most insane next month of college football ever. (So, to answer the question, very, very no.)

19. Maryland Terrapins (2-1)

Even with the 43-3 loss at Northwestern, the Terps still technically have a shot … sort of.

– Get healthy. The Terps can’t miss another game, or it won’t be eligible for the Big Ten Championship.

– Blowout Indiana in Bloomington, and then blowout Michigan and Rutgers.

– Ohio State has to lose two of its last three games – at Illinois, at Michigan State, Michigan – or (sorry, but breaking one of the rules here) it has to miss two more games and not be eligible to play in the Big Ten Championship.

– The Terps have to get to and win the Big Ten Championship – impressively. So …

Will Maryland Make The College Football Playoff? Hard no.

Path To The Playoff 
– Teams that will be told they can make the CFP (but really can’t)
– Teams that can make the CFP … with a LOT of help
– Teams that can make the CFP … with a little help
– Teams that control their CFP destiny
– 4 most likely teams to make the CFP

NEXT: Path To The Playoff: Teams that will be told they can make the College Football Playoff (but really can’t)

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College Football Playoff Top 25 Projection, Rankings Prediction: What Will They Be On Tuesday?

What will the 2020 College Football Playoff top 25 rankings be when they’re first released on Tuesday night?

What will the 2020 College Football Playoff top 25 rankings be when they’re first released on Tuesday night?

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The first round of College Football Playoff rankings will be released on Tuesday night. What will they be? In this crazy year when some teams have played almost a full season, and some others are just getting started, how will a top 25 be put together?

A few ground rules when it comes to the College Football Playoff process.

1. The rankings are meant to capture the moment. Every week’s rankings are unique. When they come out, they’ll be a snapshot. They’ll then be thrown out, and the whole process will start over next week.

2. The committee tends to like big wins, hates awful losses, and in general over the last six years, it hasn’t punished teams that suffer losses to the elite teams.

3. Every spot in the rankings is debated. The committee argues and discusses the No. 24 spot, and then the No. 24, and so on up until No. 1. This is a meticulous process. If you don’t like the ranking, at least know there was a whole lot of thought put into it.

Most of all …

4. There aren’t any rules except for one – no other ranking system matters. The AP and Coaches polls don’t exist here. These are the rankings of record, and they’re based on the whims of a panel of judges. They have their own stats and their own ideas, but they can do whatever they want to.

College Football Playoff Rankings Prediction Top 25 Projection

25. Auburn Tigers 5-2

The Case For This Spot: The Tigers have five wins in the SEC. Say what you will about the conference being overrated and overloved, going 5-2 in the conference is good no matter what. Best of all, the team is quietly getting better over the last three games.

Should Be Higher: One of the two losses is at Georgia, losing 27-6 when the Bulldog defense played one of its better games of the year. The 48-11 win over LSU was impressive – even if it’s not the same LSU – and stuffing Kentucky, Tennessee, and even Ole Miss and Arkansas is a more impressive body of work than what most of the teams on this list have done.

Should Be Lower: South Carolina 30, Auburn 22. Combine that with no wins over anyone currently with a winning record, and several other teams not on this list have a beef.

Up Next: Alabama

24. Wisconsin Badgers 2-1

The Case For This Spot: When this team is fully healthy, fully functional, and with everyone okay, it’s as effective and as deadly as any in college football for what it does. Illinois and Michigan might not be that great, but what the Badgers did were two of the more impressive back-to-back performances by any Power Five team.

Should Be Higher: The loss at Northwestern was weird and ugly, but lost in the 17-7 loss was a dominant performance by the defense. The offense was without most of its top receivers, and it was a road loss against an unbeaten team.

Should Be Lower: Northwestern 17, Wisconsin 7. Combine the horrible offensive game with just three games of sample size, and being just inside the top 25 is good enough.

Up Next: Minnesota

23. North Carolina Tar Heels 6-2

The Case For This Spot: The offense is a blast, the defense is … the offense is a blast. The Tar Heels haven’t and won’t play Miami, but a case could be made that they’re the third-best team in the ACC. With 56 points against Duke and 59 against Wake Forest, the offense is getting better and better.

Should Be Higher: The offense is the real deal. It’s balanced, it’s devastating, and it’s the type of team no one wants to face. We’ll know a whole lot more after the Notre Dame game this weekend.

Should Be Lower: Florida State 31, North Carolina 28. Virginia 41. No one else expected to be in the top 25 will have two losses this bad.

Up Next: Notre Dame

22. Tulsa Golden Hurricane 5-1

The Case For This Spot: The Golden Hurricane are on a five-game winning streak with a magical quality to its run, coming up with thrillers over SMU and Tulane over the last two weeks.

Should Be Higher: The resumé, is far, far, far, far better than BYU’s and Marshall’s, and – it could be argued – is better than Cincinnati’s. The lone loss was on the road to Oklahoma State in a 16-7 fight that went down to the wire.

Should Be Lower: It shouldn’t be. Tulsa deserves to be somewhere around the top 15 – especially with a 34-26 win over UCF.

Up Next: at Houston

21. Texas Longhorns 5-2

The Case For This Spot: On one side, Texas has just two losses to TCU and Oklahoma in games that could’ve gone either way. On the other side, it has wins over Texas Tech. Oklahoma State and West Virginia that also could’ve gone the other way.

Should Be Higher: The Longhorns are good enough to have come this close to beating Oklahoma, and they were able to get by Oklahoma State in Stillwater despite not playing all that well, but …

Should Be Lower: Again, they should’ve lost to Texas Tech and the defeat to TCU looks awful now.

Up Next: Iowa State

NEXT: Top 20 First College Football Playoff Rankings Prediction

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College Football Playoff Top 25 Projection, Rankings Prediction: What Will They Be On Nov. 24?

What will the College Football Playoff rankings be when they’re first released on Tuesday, November 24th?

What will the College Football Playoff rankings be when they’re first released on Tuesday, November 24th?

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In this craziest of INSANE years, how do you possibly put together a proper College Football Playoff Top 25? The committee is going to try doing it next week, to be released on Tuesday, November 24th.

Here’s the drill. We’re going to try protecting what the initial College Football Playoff Top 25 will be after next Saturday’s games. That means some calls have to be made on who’ll win, to go along with trying to read the minds of the committee.

A few ground rules when it comes to the College Football Playoff process.

1. The rankings are meant to capture the moment. They’re not set in stone, meaning the whole thing gets thrown out and everything starts all over again the following week. So if a team is ranked, say, 15th, it’s not a sure thing that it moves up with a win or down with a loss.

2. To generalize after six years of College Football Playoff rankings, the committee tends to like big wins, hates awful losses, and it doesn’t really penalize defeats to big teams. When they’re arguing in that room – again, in general – the big win gets the most attention.

3. Every spot in the rankings is argued over. There’s a debate over the No. 25 team, there’s an agreement, and then there’s a debate over the No. 24 spot, there’s an agreement, and so on. You might not agree with the rankings, but be secure in the knowledge that at least there was a discussion and thought process into every aspect.

And finally …

4. There are no hard rules. The committee can pick any teams it wants to. It goes by its own set of proprietary stats, strength of schedule is huge, and there’s a premium on head-to-head wins. After all of that, throw in the eye test to go along with the resumé.

And remember, the AP and Coaches polls don’t exist. The College Football Playoff rankings are their own separate world, and they’re the ones that matter.

So what will they be? Here’s the best guess for the first run of College Football Playoff rankings – again, for Tuesday the 24th, not this week …

College Football Playoff Rankings Prediction Top 25 Projection

25. North Carolina Tar Heels 6-2

The Tar Heels are going to be get crushed for the loss to Florida State – arguably the worst defeat by anyone in the top 25. There’s a decent win over Virginia Tech, but there isn’t one win to get fired up about. The Notre Dame game comes in two weeks.
Up Next: Notre Dame (Nov. 27)

24. Texas Longhorns 5-2

The overall resumé isn’t all that great, and a loss to TCU will sting, but the win at Oklahoma State and the close loss to Oklahoma will be just enough to sneak into the top 25.
Up Next: at Kansas

23. USC Trojans 2-0

MASSIVE assumption  – there won’t be enough games to go off of to give USC a whole lot of credit. However, again, these rankings start over next week, so the more wins, the bigger the body of work to get credit for.

The committee won’t like the eye test of the first two wins over Arizona and Arizona State, and the overall metrics won’t work because Utah won’t have played anyone when it hosts USC next week. However, if the Trojans win, that will be the excuse needed to get close to the top 20.
Up Next: at Utah

22. Liberty Flames 8-0

This is a complete and total guess – even more than any of the other teams on this list. If Liberty loses to NC State this week, it’ll start around 22ish. If it wins, it won’t be crazy to assume it’ll be in the top ten with road wins over Virginia Tech, NC State, and – scoff, but it’s an ACC team – Syracuse. That would be three road wins over Power Five teams, while BYU and Cincinnati won’t have any.

So again, this ranking is the most fluid of the bunch – don’t get into a twist one way or another here.
Up Next: at NC State

21. Iowa State Cyclones 5-2

The College Football Playoff committee will catch the one glaring error in the other polls – Louisiana 31, Iowa State 14. The win over Oklahoma is big, but that’s offset by the loss to Oklahoma State. there won’t be any impressive wins past the one over the Sooners.
Up Next: Kansas State

NEXT: Top 20 First College Football Playoff Rankings Prediction

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Former UGA football WR Mecole Hardman tweets thoughts on CFP rankings

Former Georgia football wide receiver Mecole Hardman gave his thoughts on the newest CFP rankings and added an interesting twist.

Former Georgia wide receiver Mecole Hardman, now having a sensational rookie season with the Kansas City Chiefs, gave his thoughts on the most recent College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday.

After beating Penn State, the Buckeyes jumped LSU and claimed the No. 1 spot in the rankings. College football fans are split on the committee’s decision, and Hardman is one who disagrees with the order.

Yeah, the OSU win was nice, but LSU has been doing that all season.

Here are Hardman’s thoughts on the rankings.

ESPN unveils College Football Playoff Rankings for 11/26/19, where is Georgia?

Where is Georgia football in the latest College Football Playoff ranking?

The Georgia Bulldogs held on to defeat the Texas A&M Aggies Saturday, by a score of 19-13 in Athens. Though often ugly in a rain-soaked cross-division battle, the Bulldogs found a way to get the victory and advance to Atlanta (x2) for two more games.

Georgia finds itself going back into the capital of the Peach State in back-to-back weeks, for games against rival Georgia Tech and top-ranked LSU.

With just two weeks remaining, here’s how the Top 10 shaped out on Tuesday night.

 

  1. Ohio State
  2. LSU
  3. Clemson
  4. Georgia
  5. Alabama
  6. Utah
  7. Oklahoma
  8. Minnesota
  9. Baylor
  10. Penn State

Watch: Alabama football players react to finding out CFP rankings

Alabama football players were not thrilled with their position behind UGA football in the College Football Playoff rankings.

The College Football Playoff committee had a big decision to make in the latest edition of their rankings.

To value Georgia’s two good wins and one bad loss over Alabama’s no signature wins and one forgivable loss?

Ultimately, the committee placed Georgia at No. 4 in the rankings, meaning if the Playoffs were to begin today the Dawgs would be in.

Alabama checked in at No. 5. Some argue that the Tide should have been ranked at 4, some are fine with the committee’s decision and then there’s a decent sized portion of the college football community who actually think Nick Saban’s team is not even deserving of being the second highest ranked one-loss program.

Bama lost a close game to LSU, which is now No. 1 in the nation. The final score showed Alabama lost by five, but it really did not feel that tight throughout the full game.

Despite that, and the fact that Georgia has two top-25 wins to Alabama’s zero, Bama players were not pleased to find out they sit behind Georgia in the newest rankings.

Watch as they react to the rankings. Volume up.

“As you look at No. 4 and No. 5 and the discussion around those two teams: two really good teams, obviously one-loss teams,” committee chair Rob Mullens said. “We just saw Alabama had a tough loss against LSU, but when you compare that against Georgia’s resume and the two big wins that Georgia had…”

College Football Playoff Rankings week 12: Does Texas make it?

Where does Texas rank in the week 12 edition of the College Football Playoff rankings

Last week, the first College Football Playoff top 25 rankings were released, and the Longhorns were not listed.

The second CFP rankings were released on Tuesday night, and Texas is in.

Coming in at the 19 spot in week 12’s rankings, Texas is looking to make a final push for the Big 12 Championship. But both Baylor and Oklahoma are ahead of them in the conference standings. Texas will face Iowa State this weekend before traveling down to Waco, TX to face the Baylor Bears.

Here are the complete CFP rankings for week 12:

With Penn State and Alabama both falling over the weekend, the top four teams look completely different. The final stretch of the 2019 college football season is shaping up to be a good one.

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