WHAT WE LEARNED

GOOD WINS BAD LOSS, STILL:

Clemson’s six victories against teams with winning records, including Virginia Tech (13th) and Auburn (14th) outweighed a loss on the road to a Syracuse team that is 4-4. That’s been a fairly consistent trend in the short history of the selection committee. The members tend not to get too caught up in the notion of a bad loss. Committee chairman Kirby Hocutt also noted that Clemson playing the second half without injured quarterback Kelly Bryant factored into its loss. He also said Alabama got credit for beating Florida State to start the season when the Seminoles had their starting QB Deondre Francois for most of the game.

Washington is the of the Pac-12 teams at No. 12. The

PAC-12 IS IN TROUBLE:

highest ranked Huskies are the only team left in the conference with a chance to win the league at 12-1, but their position behind a plethora of teams with one loss means they’ll need a good deal of help. On the bright side, plenty of those teams in front of the Huskies have to play each other.

IT MIGHT NOT BE JUST THE PAC-12 IN TROUBLE:

The top four includes teams from only two of Power Five conferences, and if Georgia, Alabama and Notre Dame keep winning it very well could stay that way. The Bulldogs and Tide eventually would play each other in the SEC championship game, but if both arrive 12-0 in Atlanta, and the independent Irish finish 11-1, the Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic Coast Conference and Pac-12 could be vying for one spot.