This weekend is why some people say that we take the sport of college football for granted. It was a very uneventful slate overall, with not too many exciting games, or many upsets, but the potential CFB Playoff field was narrowed even more yesterday.
Let's start with our three teams that virtually locked up their playoff spots yesterday. Indiana at 11-0 is already safely in the field. With a win over Samford, the Aggies will be in the College Football Playoff. Ohio State and Georgia both secured their playoff spots with wins yesterday.
Even if Georgia loses to Georgia Tech and loses in the SEC title game, they will still be in the field, as there is no way that the committee penalizes a Big 10 or SEC team for playing the extra game. Doing so would likely mean an end to major conference title games as a whole.
College Football Playoff field continues to clarify despite somewhat boring slate
Two teams lost their chances at the playoffs yesterday. Georgia Tech lost to Pittsburgh and USC lost to Oregon. With those losses, neither team has a path to their conference championship games nor will have any hopes of receiving an at-large bid based on where they were ranked coming into the weekend.
Looking at the rest of the potential playoff teams, some teams could still lose a game, some simply need a win to make it in, while others need to win out and will need some help.
Oregon and Ole Miss could both likely lose their respective games next week and still make it in, but recency bias will be against them. A win will lock them into the playoffs, but a loss won't necessarily kick them out.
Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Alabama, Texas Tech and Michigan simply need to win next week, and they will likely be a lock for the playoffs. If they all do, it would create a massive issue for the committee as you would have too many "deserving" teams for too few open spots.
Unfortunately for BYU and Miami, they would likely need to win their conference championship games in order to guarantee their spots. Their current rankings make it very tough for them.
Then there's Vanderbilt, Utah, and Texas. Unfortunately, being ranked where they are, even with wins this weekend, they would likely be on the outside looking in.
This coming weekend of college football looks to be much more exciting than the one we just saw, and the stakes for each game will be magnified. Check back later this week for your games to look out for with the biggest potential playoff implications.