What a weekend of college football. What a comeback by the Aggies. A couple of teams punched their ticket this weekend while a couple of teams hopes for the playoffs withered away.
Let's start off with our 4 teams that have firmly locked in their playoff spot. Ohio State continues to dominate their relatively soft schedule. Even if they lose out, or lose to Michigan, they will be in the college football playoff field.
Indiana also punched their ticket. The Hoosiers beat Wisconsin and are all but completely locked in. They could even lose to Purdue and the conference title game and would still be in the field.
Your Texas A&M Aggies are a lock for the playoffs as well. Even with a loss to Texas, and a potential loss in the SEC title game, the Aggies will be in the College Football Playoff. Ole Miss beat Florida and punched their ticket as well. Even if they were to lose to Mississippi State (or beat them and potentially lose in the SEC title game), a 10-2 SEC team will make it in as an at-large, though their schedule issues become a bit more relevant at that point.
Now let's get to the teams whose playoff hopes have vanished this weekend. USF lost to Navy. Even if the Bulls somehow make their conference title game, they would not likely be the highest ranked G5 team available.
Louisville lost to Clemson. That loss eliminates Louisville from ACC title game contention, eliminating any hopes at the Playoffs. Texas lost to Georgia, bringing a smile to Aggie fans' faces. With this loss, Texas' hopes at an SEC title game berth are over. They would need a lot of losses nationally for the slimmest possible chance for a 3-loss team to receive an at-large berth.
Four SEC teams are still alive for the playoffs, but still need more to be a lock. Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, and Alabama all need to win out. If they lose, they will be out of the playoffs.
For Alabama, it will be tougher. With only one loss, a win at Auburn could give them a SEC title berth. A loss in Atlanta could be the end for the Tide as it will be pretty tough to get a 3-loss team into the playoff with a loss to a poor FSU team— however, the committee has repeatedly said that they won't penalize teams for losing in the conference championship.
Georgia only has two goals left before the CFP: beat Georgia Tech and win the SEC title game. Now, if they lose to Georgia Tech and don't make it to Atlanta, they will still be in the Playoffs.
Three Big 10 teams are still alive for a playoff spot but still have work to do to make it in. USC and Michigan will need to win out. USC still has Oregon this weekend and Michigan has Ohio State the following weekend.
Oregon needs a win against either USC or Washington, and they will punch their ticket to the playoffs. Michigan has an interesting scenario. If they beat Ohio State, they could make the Big 10 title game, where they may need to win that to be firmly in the playoffs.
The Big 12 still has two teams that could potentially make the playoffs as an at-large. If Texas Tech or BYU make the Big 12 title game and lose, there is still a possibility that either team could sneak into the last at-large slot. Other teams could still sneak into the Big 12 title game, but they do not control their own destiny at this point.
Lastly, two ACC teams could still have a chance at an at-large bid, even if they don't win the ACC title game. Those two teams are Miami and Georgia Tech. In Georgia Tech's case, they would need to beat Georgia to have a decent enough resume to be considered as an at-large.
Miami needs to win out regardless of whether they could still make the ACC title game or not. With where their ranking currently is, there is a very slim chance that they could steal that last at-large slot from a BIG 12 runner up.
There are still three weekends to go before Selection Sunday. There's lots of football still to be played, but every Saturday that goes by, we get closer and closer to our 12 teams that will ultimately compete for the national title.