What will the College Football Playoff rankings be on Sunday? Here’s the best guess.
Okay, so we’re here. It’s top for the College Football Playoff final top 25 rankings to come out, and it’s time to finally know who gets to play in the big four-team tournament. The best projection and top 25 prediction is …
25. NC State Wolfpack 8-3 (22)
The eight wins stand out. It was the only team to beat Liberty, it hung tough with Miami, and it ended up being one of the five or six beat teams in the ACC.
24. Tulsa Golden Hurricane 6-2 (23)
The 27-24 loss to Cincinnati should be enough to earn more respect than this, but the loss to Oklahoma State to start the season will be what keeps the Golden Hurricane down this far. It was still a magnificent year.
23. Oklahoma State Cowboys 7-3 (21)
The Cowboys died down the stretch … sort of. They lost three of their last six games and beat up the Big 12’s bad teams, but they won’t bounce out of the top 25 after being firmly in it the week before.
22. Texas Longhorns 6-3 (20)
Texas deserves a better ranking than this. The loss at home to TCU hurts, but the other losses were to Oklahoma and Iowa State, and all three defeats were this close to going the other way.
21. Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns 9-1 (19)
Louisiana gets the shaft in all of this. It beat Iowa State, the one loss is to unbeaten Coastal Carolina, and there wasn’t a chance to prove that it might actually be the Sun Belt’s best team with the rematch with the Chanticleers called off.
20. USC Trojans 5-1 (13)
There weren’t any great wins, and the loss to Oregon was devastating. Had USC won in a blowout in the Pac-12 Championship, it would’ve had an interesting case for the fourth spot considering ow everything shook out.
19. Oregon Ducks 4-2 (NR)
This will tidy everything up. The losses to Oregon and Oregon State won’t exactly be brushed aside, but what amounted to a road win at USC for the Pac-12 champion will move the Ducks up hither than the Trojans to make it all easy to put everything in order.
18. Miami Hurricanes 8-2 (18)
This might be a little low. The blowout loss to North Carolina still hurts, but wins over NC State and Pitt are solid, and the 31-14 victory over Conference USA champion UAB looks a lot better now.
17. BYU Cougars 9-1 (17)
The Cougars are off to the Boca Raton Bowl to face UCF after a very fun and very exciting season. There aren’t a ton of massive wins, but there are enough good ones to be ranked a bit higher than this. It doesn’t matter – the Cougars are already settled into a bowl game.
16. Iowa Hawkeyes 6-2 (16)
The losses to Purdue and Northwestern happened to start the season, but a six-game winning streak to close things out was impressive. However, there wasn’t a win over anyone with a winning regular-season record. Even so, there were enough good victories to be in the top 16.
15. North Carolina Tar Heels 8-3 (15)
The Tar Heels were impressive enough against Miami last week to hang around the top 15, and the loss to Notre Dame wasn’t awful. The losses to Florida State and Virginia might push the Tar Heels lower, but nothing much happened to knock the team down too much.
14. San Jose State Spartans 7-0 (24)
Call this a wish ranking, because it’s the right thing to do. San Jose State not only went unbeaten with a Mountain West Championship, but it won all seven games by double-digit. Beating Nevada and Boise State should help earn the Spartans top 15 consideration.
13. Northwestern Wildcats 6-2 (14)
The Cats fought the good fight in the Big Ten Championship loss to Ohio State, and the win over Iowa now looks terrific, but the loss to Michigan State stings. It was a terrific season to get to the second Big Ten title game in three years.
12. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 11-0 (12)
The committee still won’t get this right. It should put one-loss Louisiana ahead of Iowa State – the Ragin’ Cajuns beat the Cyclones – but it’ll get the unbeaten Chanticleers up higher since it’s the one team that beat the team that beat the team. There will be some call that they should be in the top ten, but being this high will be terrific.
11. Indiana Hoosiers 6-1 (11)
It’s going to be one of the biggest drama aspects of the rankings – will Indiana get ahead of Iowa State to be in the New Year’s Six? There’s no fantastic win, but there also aren’t the three losses like the Cyclones have.
NEXT: College Football Playoff Final Projection, Top 25 Prediction
College Football Playoff Final Top Ten Prediction
10. Iowa State Cyclones 8-3 (6)
The earlier win over Oklahoma and the good late run of five straight wins before the Big 12 Championship should be enough to keep the Cyclones close to the top ten, if not in. This is big for a New Year’s Six slot. Get here, and get a big bowl game.
9. Georgia Bulldogs 7-2 (8)
The rise of JT Daniels as the starting quarterback helped turn the season around in the second half – he wasn’t the QB against Alabama or Florida. If your only two sins are losses to the Tide and Gators away from home – and you dominated everyone else – that’s not bad.
8. Florida Gators 8-3 (7)
The entire body of work is taken into account. The Gators might have lost at home to LSU, the win over Georgia, the strong performance in the SEC Championship, and the team looked good enough the rest of the way to make it into the top eight.
7. Oklahoma Sooners 9-2 (10)
It was a terrific season for the Sooners after a 1-2 start, rolling for seven straight wins with a dominant run before taking out Iowa State for the Big 12 Championship. That, with a win over Texas, and a spot in the New Year’s Six – it was a good season.
6. Cincinnati Bearcats 9-0 (9)
There’s just no great win. Beating Tulsa 27-24 in the American Athletic Conference Championship is fine, but you have as many wins over Power Five programs as the Bearcats had this season. The win over the Golden Hurricane was stronger than the final score, but it would’ve been nice if it was a total wipeout.
5. Texas A&M Aggies 8-1 (5)
There just isn’t that second win. The Aggies might deserve it – methodical time of possession dominant is sexy – but there’s the Florida win, and … crickets. The 52-24 win over Alabama happened in early October, but there isn’t the wow factor. Speaking of the lack of WOW …
The College Football Playoff Top Four Will Be …
4. Notre Dame Fighting Irish 10-1 (2)
Fiiiiiiiiiine. There’s going to be zero interest in seeing the Irish after that 34-10 ACC Championship performance against Clemson, but they earned a top four spot with a win over the Tigers early on and – the key to being here over Texas A&M – is the 31-17 win at North Carolina.
3. Ohio State Buckeyes 6-0 (4)
Ehhhhhhhh, the Buckeyes are here at the three, but it’s only because they’re unbeaten, and the committee already professed their love early in the process. They were missing 22 players for the Big Ten Championship win over Northwestern, but it’s a soft 3 on the deserve scale. It doesn’t matter – it’ll end up getting a rematch of last year’s College Football Playoff semifinal against …
2. Clemson Tigers 10-1 (3)
Now that’s the Clemson we all know and love. It’s not like the team played poorly when DJ Uiagalelei was under center – especially against Notre Dame – but the Tigers came out far stronger, far sharper, and far better in a dominant ACC Championship win over Notre Dame.
1. Alabama Crimson Tide 11-0 (1)
A no-brainer call, Alabama’s the dominant unbeaten SEC Champion with a blowout win over Texas A&M and the strong title game victory over Florida. The Gators provided a push, but that was about it for the on-field drama.
