With each passing week in college football, a team or two is eliminated from Playoff contention. These highly ranked teams all happen to play each other, which helps prevent outright chaos and keeps the fans of those teams truly in contention a little calmer. Alabama survived its trip to Death Valley, Auburn fumbled away a game to a downtrodden Texas A&M, and Ohio State is the best team in the Big Ten.
Here are your power rankings for Week 12.
The Bulldogs did what they had to do against UT-Martin in what was a glorified bye week before their trip to Tuscaloosa on Saturday.
It wasn’t pretty, but the Tide showed championship-level resilience at LSU. The offensive play on the road still needs some serious work, but the defense kept Alabama in the game. Miss. State is undefeated and has been steady all season, but it hasn’t faced Alabama yet.
Oregon keeps mowing down the Pac-12. While the Ducks were fortunate that Utah committed one of the worst fumbles in recent memory, it ultimately didn’t matter with Oregon winning 51-27. Other than the Pac-12 title game, Oregon should cruise through its remaining schedule of Oregon State and Colorado.
The Horned Frogs are on a roll with consecutive wins against West Virginia and Kansas State, and look like the best team in the Big 12. But their one loss against Baylor may hinder their playoff run with the Bears still playing well and beating Oklahoma.
Florida State hasn’t won many games resoundingly, but they remain undefeated. Now all the Seminoles have to do is beat Boston College and two other schools from their state. Miami and Florida won’t be easy wins, but they shouldn’t give FSU too much trouble.
The Buckeyes got a seriously high-quality win at Michigan State on Saturday. They may be the hottest team in the country, but it probably won’t matter. Basically, if Ohio State had beaten Virginia Tech at home in Week 2, it would be a lock for a playoff spot. They didn’t, so they’re not.
Arizona State got a big lead, lost it, then got it back on Saturday against Notre Dame. The Sun Devils look like Oregon’s only risky game between now and the playoff, which would be in the Pac-12 title game.
Auburn fumbled away the game on Saturday against Texas A&M. While it appeared the Tigers would come back, as they normally do, they magic finally ran out. Auburn still has games against Georgia and, of course, the Iron Bowl against Alabama, but it needs a lot of help to get into the final four.
Baylor beat TCU, but its non-conference schedule’s strength — or lack thereof — hurts them. Even though the Bears trounced Oklahoma this weekend, they really needed to go undefeated with their strength of schedule.
The Rebels would have to win out and hope for a lot of help to force a tie in the SEC West. They are still a good team, but the playoff may now be out of reach.
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