College Football Playoff Predictions Week 11: Stanford, Oklahoma State Crash Playoff Party
College Football Playoff predictions for Week 11 now include Stanford and Oklahoma State. The latest College Football Playoff projections come after a weekend of ranked teams getting upset by conference rivals. A new report from CBS Sports shifts the top four teams getting the invite to the College Football Playoff this season, with LSU finding itself off the list.
The new list from CBS Sports includes Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson, and Stanford (in that order), as the four schools getting invited to the championship bowl games. It’s a big shift from the previous week, but Alabama easily took care of LSU in a huge SEC game. Though the Alabama Crimson Tide have a loss already on the season, the school got a boost from TCU getting knocked off the list of unbeatens as well.
The Week 11 College Football Playoff predictions were affected by losses by ranked teams LSU, TCU, Michigan State, Memphis, Florida State, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Toledo this past week. The Michigan State loss hurts the Big Ten and Ohio State, and the TCU loss hurts the Big 12 and the resume that Baylor could put together. Both Michigan State and TCU move further down the list of teams that could get an invite to the College Football Playoff, especially with how the most recent rankings have punished each school.
In the updated college football rankings, Clemson actually passed Ohio State in the AP Top 25. The Tigers received 31 first place votes, the Buckeyes drew 26, the Alabama Crimson Tide has two, and the Baylor Bears received two as well. In the Coaches Poll, Ohio State remains No. 1, followed by Clemson, Baylor, and Alabama (in that order). It shows that the writers and the coaches are viewing things differently as the season starts to wind down.
The team getting the biggest bump was Oklahoma State, as the 9-0 Cowboys moved up to No. 5 in both major polls. That puts the team right on the doorstep for an invite to the College Football Playoff, though the school will have to deal with Baylor at some point this season. Notre Dame (8-1), Stanford (8-1), and Iowa (9-0) moved up to No. 6, No. 7, and No. 8 in each respective poll.
The College Football Playoff predictions from ESPN have Clemson, Ohio State, Alabama, and Baylor as the four schools making it to the big dance. The schools knocking on the door now are Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, Stanford, and Iowa. Iowa has a schedule of Minnesota, Purdue, and Nebraska left that could lead the Hawkeyes to an undefeated regular season. The team would likely then play against the Ohio State Buckeyes for the Big Ten title game and possibly an invite to the playoffs.
The school taking the biggest hit in all the latest College Football Playoff projections is LSU. The school dropped to 7-1 on the season, but also loses the head-to-head tie-breaker to Alabama in the SEC West. Even if LSU beats Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M to wrap up the regular season, the Tigers need Alabama to lose in order to make the SEC title game. Alabama plays Mississippi State, Charleston Southern, and Auburn to close out the regular season. MSU is now ranked No. 20 in the latest polls.
One school to watch is Utah as the Pac-12 schedule winds down. Utah is No. 10 and has three games left before possibly playing for the conference championship. If the Utes can win that game, the team would be at 12-1 and looking for an invite to the latest College Football Playoff. It could still take some help from other schools losing for the team to get the postseason invite it wants the most.
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