Tom Dienhart, BTN.com Senior Writer, November 10, 2015
The second College Football Playoff rankings will be released tonight. How will it look?
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Last week, the first rankings had Clemson No. 1; LSU No. 2; Ohio State No. 3; Alabama No. 4.
But, there will be change this week, as LSU lost to Alabama on Saturday. Clemson and Ohio State both took care of business. I expect 9-0 Clemson to remain on top after an impressive 23-13 win vs. No. 16 Florida State. And 8-1 Alabama should to move from No. 4 to No. 2 after drumming LSU, 30-16. Ohio State, 9-0, should be No. 3 after a methodical 28-14 home win vs. Minnesota.
Who will join Clemson, Alabama and Ohio State in the Top Four?
I think it will be Notre Dame, which drummed a pretty good Pitt squad, 42-30, on the road to move to 8-1. The Fighting Irish have wins over two ranked teams (Georgia Tech and Temple) and their lone loss was at Clemson. But ND?s schedule doesn?t have a lot of juice left aside from a season-ending game at Stanford; the other tilts are in South Bend vs. Wake Forest and Boston College.
My Top Four
1. Clemson
2. Alabama
3. Ohio State
4. Notre Dame
Sitting on the precipice of the playoffs are 8-0 Baylor, 9-0 Iowa, 8-1 Florida and 8-1 Stanford. The Bears have a big chance to impress in coming weeks with games up next vs. three ranked foes: Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and TCU before closing with Texas. Iowa will play Minnesota, Purdue and Nebraska-and possibly in the Big Ten title game. Florida-which has clinched the SEC East–has South Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Florida State and the SEC title game. Stanford has games left vs. Oregon, Cal and Notre Dame, as well as possibly the Pac-12 championship contest.
As for the rest of the rankings, five Big Ten teams (No. 3 Ohio State; No. 7 Michigan State; No. 9 Iowa; No. 17 Michigan; No. 21 Northwestern) were ranked last week, and that number should improve by one, with 8-2 Wisconsin joining the list. More good news: Four of the five Big Ten teams ranked last week should move up.
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