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College Football Playoff Rankings: Oklahoma State Moves Up to No. 6, Outlook Appears Bleak

By Kurt Freudenberger

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Alright, the newest edition of the vaunted, respected, and completely and totally reasonable committee’s College Football Playoff rankings have been released. They are as follows:

  1. Clemson
  2. Alabama
  3. Ohio State
  4. Notre Dame
  5. Iowa
  6. Oklahoma State
  7. Oklahoma
  8. Florida
  9. Michigan State
  10. Baylor

OU definitely threw a wrench in things somewhat, along with Stanford’s loss to Oregon. The Cowboys benefited by moving up past both. Still, with a last minute win against Iowa State, did you really expect them to move up past teams that haven’t lost?

Joel Klatt, who has given the Cowboys plenty of love the last two weeks, was just a little bit off with OU:

But he followed that with a pretty great tweet:

Aaaand another:

Some things to *calmly* keep in mind as the season goes forward:

♦ Alabama clearly has the easiest regular season path ahead of them. They play freaking CHARLESTON SOUTHERN this weekend. And yes, CSU is a 9-1 team, but they play in the mighty Big South division, home of such juggernauts as Kennesaw State, Monmouth, and Gardener-Webb. The Crimson Tide end the season on the road at 5-5 Auburn. They will later play Florida in the SEC title game.

♦ Ohio State has a pretty difficult road ahead of them, closing the season against Michigan State and at Michigan.

♦ Iowa gets Nebraska and Purdue for their last two regular season games.

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♦ Notre Dame still has to play at Stanford. Also, I know people have been knocking the Fighting Irish lately for whatever reason, but for a one-loss team, they have a great resume. Their only loss is a two-point road loss to the No. 1 team in the country. They have wins over seven teams that have been ranked at some point this season, including one that still is in Navy. If they beat Stanford, that’ll be eight teams. Eight! Obviously nearly every one of those teams has fallen out, but for them to even be ranked at any point this season says something about the schedule.

Notre Dame has really screwed things up. The Pac-12 took care of itself playoff-wise, but the Fighting Irish haven’t helped things. Yes, the loss to Clemson kinda takes some of the luster off of a dreaded rematch, but still, if you’re going to have a loss, you want it to be by less than a score to the best team in the country. Also, it’s worth mentioning that Notre Dame’s entire schedule has been anything but weak.

If they win out, the Cowboys are pretty much screwed, barring some divine revelation from the committee, or losses at the top.

♦ Speaking of Clemson, they have bad Wake Forest and South Carolina teams to close the season, but they still have to play North Carolina in the ACC title game. That’s not a given.

The Cowboys don’t have a conference title game, but they are fortunate that Baylor and OU are good. Either Ohio State or Iowa is bound to fall, considering that they will likely face each other in the Big 10 title game if they both take care of business. So there’s that.

The bottom line is, it’s all a jumbled mess still, and plenty of teams still have multiple chances to lose. If the Cowboys do what they need to do at Boone Pickens Stadium to close the season out, they…should…be…ok.

Right Curtis?

That is pretty wishful thinking right now. Jeff Long said after the rankings came out that Iowa was the better team over Oklahoma State because of “road wins,” and because of their balance.

I don’t know about you, but there is a certain team in Stillwater with two pretty solid road wins, and features one of the highest scoring offenses in the country, along with one of the top five defenses in sacks and tackles for loss.

Long’s comment should Cowboy fans worried. He’s ignoring them. He mentions OSU having a backloaded schedule, but has put them in a position that they likely can’t rise out of on their own. Do remember, while the Cowboys end the season with Baylor and OU, the other teams all have huge games to end the season as well, that will only solidify their positions should they win out.

Basically, we learned nothing tonight. Alabama is great, Iowa is great AND complete, Ohio State is great, etc. etc. etc. Your only hope going forward is for OSU to win out, and for the other top five teams to play like crap and hopefully lose at some point.

The end. See you next week, committee. Can’t wait to hear about how the Baylor win this Saturday wasn’t complete enough or whatever.

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