A calm before the storm, Week 10 was, with four of the nation’s top five teams — LSU, Alabama, Ohio State and Penn State — out of action and Tuesday night’s first College Football Playoff reveal fast approaching.
The playoff committee’s rankings will be shared on ESPN — right around 8 p.m. — in between the Duke-Kansas and Kentucky-Michigan State basketball games at Madison Square Garden.
Football’s top four sandwiched between games involving basketball’s top four? Oh, what a night.
On to the rest of the “Big 10” (where 10 actually means 10):
2. OK, let’s play: Five teams are in the mix for the first four spots. Nos. 1 and 2 will be LSU and Ohio State, though not necessarily in that order. No. 3 should be Alabama. No. 4 would then be either Penn State or defending national champion Clemson.
My guess is LSU, OSU, Alabama, Clemson.
But I’m more interested in where the rest of the contenders are positioned. At No. 6 — highest among one-loss teams — likely will be Georgia, which will make the playoff if, and only if, it runs the table through the SEC title game. Where will Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah fall? And what about sneaky unbeatens Baylor and Minnesota?
3. Then again: Aren’t we all just playing pretend until LSU and Alabama square off Saturday in Tuscaloosa? After that one, the committee can really get down to brass tacks.
4. Those sneaky unbeatens: By two Saturdays from now, at latest, we’ll know if Baylor and Minnesota are for real as playoff contenders. The Gophers host Penn State this coming weekend. The Bears are at TCU this weekend and at home against — hello — Oklahoma in Week 12.
5. Great day for Pac-12: The league got what it needed with Utah winning impressively at Washington and Oregon blowing out USC in Los Angeles. A league title game pitting the 11-1 Utes against the 11-1 Ducks would have to be awfully compelling in committee room.
6. Bad day for Clay Helton: Losing 56-24 to Oregon at home was a terrible look in a very big game for the Trojans, who fell from first place in the Pac-12 South. If this elite job opens up, as expected, how quickly before Urban Meyer is on a plane?
7. Michael Penix Jr., your table is ready: Am I the only one who watched the redshirt freshman lefty sling the pill against Northwestern and was reminded of Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa? Penix is an accurate, effortless, rocket-armed thrower. Injuries keep gnawing away at his season, but his future is extremely bright.
8. Go (Away) Cats: It’s bad enough to be 0-6 in the Big Ten, but Northwestern has been outscored 106-6 over its last three conference games. That’s astonishing.
Although Rutgers — outscored 245-24 in conference games this season — can still “hold my beer” any other bad team, anywhere, anytime.
9. That’s what he said: “I wouldn’t say it’s a significant step back.”
Sure thing, Coach. That was Florida State’s beleaguered Willie Taggart after a 27-10 loss to rival Miami at home that was even more lopsided than the score indicates. The overwhelmed Seminoles surrendered a hard-to-believe nine sacks, four of them by Hurricanes freshman Gregory Rousseau.
10. And another thing: Illinois is 5-4 after a 38-10 victory over Rutgers, but the first half in that game — a 10-10 snoozefest in Champaign — was inexcusable. The Illini better not mail in another half if they want to get that sixth win and go bowling.
