Notre Dame blocking playoff path of Big 12 teams

With Notre Dame remaining at No. 4 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, the Irish appear able to block any of the three Big 12 teams listed in this week’s top 10 if they can win out in remaining games against Boston College and Stanford.

The Big 12’s only unbeaten team, Oklahoma State, is the conference’s highest-ranked team at No. 6. Oklahoma is listed at seventh and Baylor is 10th.

The Irish are 9-1 with their only loss at No. 1 Clemson. Alabama and Ohio State held on to the second and third spots.

Notre Dame’s 38-3 season-opening victory over Texas, combined with OU’s 24-17 loss to the Longhorns five weeks later in Dallas, was considered among the reasons to keep the Irish ahead of OU after the Sooners beat Baylor last week, CFP committee chairman Jeff Long said.

But OU coach Bob Stoops remains convinced his team will make the CFP if it can finish with wins in its final two games against No. 18 TCU on Saturday and next week at Oklahoma State.

“I don’t know how you couldn’t,” Stoops said in an interview with ESPN. “If you go on the road and beat the No. 6 team (Baylor) in the country, you beat the No. 11 team in the country (TCU) and Oklahoma State also on the road — the No. 4 team in the country — who else is doing that at the end of the year, or even through the whole year?”