Sooners risin’
Oklahoma takes third in CFP rankings
Oklahoma moved into third and Iowa was fourth in the new College Football Playoff rankings as Notre Dame slipped to No. 6.
Clemson and Alabama remained the top two teams in the thirdtolast committee rankings. The Sooners (101) seem to be in solid shape with only one game left in their season. Oklahoma will play at Oklahoma State on Saturday with a chance to win the Big 12. The Cowboys dropped to 11th after losing their first game of the season
Notre Dame (101) also plays its last game of the season Saturday, a possible résumébuilder against Stanford, which is ninth in the rankings.
“In our view, Oklahoma is better than Iowa,” commit tee chairman Jeff Long said. “We felt Iowa and Michigan State were extremely close.”
Unbeaten Iowa (110) and No. 5 Michigan State (101) can set up a possible playoff playin game in the Big Ten championship if both win this weekend. Last season TCU was third in the secondtolast playoff rankings and slipped to sixth in the final rankings, behind Ohio State and Baylor. That has Big 12 fans understandably wondering if the league is set up for another fall from No. 3 even if the Sooners take care of business on Saturday in Stillwater. It is not the same situation. Oklahoma is in better position. Here’s why: Last season the committee liked TCU more than Baylor all season, despite the Bears beating the Horned Frogs in October. In the very last rankings, when Baylor’s and TCU’s schedule were almost identical, the committee finally honored the headtohead result and placed Baylor ahead of TCU.
That can’t happen this season. The Sooners loss was the Texas and with the Big 12 now using headtohead tiebreakers, they would be the conference’s one true champion.
Baylor’s very weak nonconference schedule also left it susceptible to being slighted by the committee last season. The Sooners have no such problem, with a win against Tennessee (74) on the road to their credit.
If committee members were looking for a reasonable alternative to Baylor on championship weekend before the final rankings last year, they found it in Ohio State. The Buckeyes’ 590 victory against Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game with a backup quarterback was maybe the most impressive performance of the season by any team.
Notre Dame would be in the role of Ohio State this season, but it’s not quite the same. First off, the Irish don’t have the extra game to make a last and lasting impression with the committee on championship weekend.
Stanford and Oklahoma State are similar opponents.
Last season TCU finished with a weak Iowa State team. Baylor faced a good Kansas State team at home, posted a solid win, but still was being dragged down by its nonconference schedule and a loss at West Virginia, which finished in the middle of the Big 12.