CFB Playoff Rankings: Week 13, FSU Sinks to No. 3

For the third time this season, the playoff committee revealed its Top 25. There has been much intrigue as to who will replace Auburn in the top four following the Tigers upset loss against Texas A&M this past Saturday.

CFB Playoff Rankings: Week 13, FSU Sinks to No. 3

The Top Four

Week 13’s CFB playoff rankings are out. Again, Mississippi State remains atop, followed by No. 2 Oregon, No. 3 Florida State, and No. 4 TCU. If the games were played now, Mississippi State’s proximity to home suddenly doesn’t become as significant as TCU is also a short ride away from New Orleans.

On the other hand, Florida State is suddenly the visitor against a one-loss Oregon team that would seemingly appear to be the home team regardless of whether they are slated as the home or away squad. It would be significantly easier for Oregon fans to get to Pasadena as many of them are half a day’s drive away, or less.

The Big 12

Just last week it seemed as if the winner of the Kansas State vs. TCU game would go onward to represent the Big 12 in the playoffs if the Big 12 had a one-loss representative in. Following an unexpected throttling of Oklahoma, Baylor has now inserted themselves into the playoff picture in convincing fashion as they check in at No. 7. If both teams win out, Baylor will be dubbed the Big 12 champion.

The Playoff Committee cites winning your conference as a component that will be considered when selecting the top four. However, many would argue that TCU has the more impressive résumé based on its last-second three-point loss to Baylor. In comparison, Baylor’s loss was not even close, and came at the hands of a four-loss West Virginia Mountaineers team. Also of note: TCU’s out-of-conference schedule gets the edge in comparison to Baylor’s.

The Big 10

With No. 12 Michigan State out of the playoff picture, the Big 10 now turns to No. 8 Ohio State and No. 16 Nebraska as its potential candidates. Both teams still have some challenges left remaining in the regular season, but if both teams can win out, they will inevitably face each other at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the Big 10 Championship game.

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Assuming both teams have one loss going into that game, there is the potential that the championship game will act as preliminary playoff game. The common train of thought right now, though, is that these two teams would need other teams to lose for this to even be a possibility, as the conference prestige of the Big 10 isn’t as strong as that of other conferences that would have one loss teams in the picture.

Showdown in Tempe

Lastly, the game between No. 6 Arizona State and No. 18 Notre Dame gave some indication as to exactly how legitimate of a contender the Sun Devils are, as they manhandled Notre Dame 55-31 in Tempe. The loss eliminated Notre Dame from playoff contention and inserted ASU into the hunt for a coveted top four spot.

What’s hard to ignore when considering the Sun Devils for the playoffs is a 62-27 loss at home against the UCLA Bruins. With just three games remaining, including an away game against rival No. 14 Arizona, the Sun Devils can gain a lot of momentum, and go on to play Oregon in the PAC 12 championship game. If the Sun Devils can best the Ducks, like their rival Arizona did, then it would be hard to ignore them by the time the final selection week is upon us.

The ACC

In total, the ACC placed 4 teams in the Top 25: FSU is No. 3, Clemson is No. 19, Duke is No. 21, and Georgia Tech is No. 22.

Here is this weeks College Football Playoff Committee Top 25:

CFB Playoff Committee Rankings:

1
MISSISSIPPI STATE
2OREGON
3FLORIDA STATE
4 TCU
5ALABAMA
6ARIZONA STATE
7BAYLOR
8OHIO STATE
9AUBURN
10OLE MISS
11 UCLA
12 MICHIGAN STATE
13KANSAS STATE
14ARIZONA
15GEORGIA
16NEBRASKA
17 LSU
18NOTRE DAME
19CLEMSON
20 WISCONSIN
21DUKE
22 GEORGIA TECH
23 UTAH
24 TEXAS A&M
25 MINNESOTA