The College Football Playoff selection committee made no changes among its one-loss teams this week–aside from the obvious drops by Alabama and Minnesota, who no longer have only one loss. The pecking order of the remaining undefeated and one-loss teams stayed exactly the same as it was last week, which means that we don’t know too much going into next week.
Conventional wisdom dictates that Georgia and LSU both get in if Georgia wins. Looking at the resumes explains why LSU is likely still in with a loss. No other contender (aside from Ohio State and Georgia) has anywhere close to the collection of wins that LSU has.
Meanwhile, the committee gave us no real indication as to how much of a lead Utah has over Oklahoma and Baylor. Rob Mullens told us there was a lot of conversation about those three teams, which indicates that the lead isn’t so big. Is it big enough to survive the fact that the Big 12 champion will pick up another superior win this weekend? Does how dominant the win is matter? No one knows, but we’ll likely find out on Sunday.
Here’s the full #CFBPlayoff Top 2️⃣5️⃣ rankings for games played through November 30.
Is your team in? 👀
— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) December 4, 2019
The Rose Bowl
Assuming that Ohio State is in the College Football Playoff, there is still a little intrigue as to who goes to the Rose Bowl from the Big Ten. Wisconsin, at No. 8, currently sits two spots ahead of Penn State. The committee has shown a tendency to not punish conference championship game losers too much. It also has a tendency to not punish teams that lose to elite teams. Case in point, Michigan dropped only one spot this week after being eviscerated by Ohio State. That’s great news for Wisconsin, which can’t afford to drop more than one spot if it loses to Ohio State again. (If the Badgers beat Ohio State, they will be in the Rose Bowl–unless they get enough chaos to reach the CFP.)
On the Pac 12 side, the Rose Bowl picture is pretty simply. It will most likely be Oregon appearing in the game. The Ducks could win the Pac 12 Championship Game and reach the Rose Bowl. If Oregon loses, though, there is still a chance that Utah reaches the CFP, in which case Oregon goes to the Rose Bowl. If Utah wins but cannot crack the Top 4, then the Utes will be playing in the Rose Bowl.