My guess right now for the playoffs:
1 Alabama (13-0 SEC Champs)
2 Clemson (12-1 ACC Champs)
3 Washington (12-1 Pac-12 Champs)
4 Ohio State (11-1)
Relevant predictions for the big 5 conferences, ready to eat lots of crow:
- Alabama keeps rolling as expected. Florida already locked up the East but is going to limp into the title game. Frankly, Alabama will be #1 even if they lose the SECCG, provided they win out until then.
- Clemson isn't going to lose again. They choked badly vs Pitt, but it happening twice would be a long shot, and they're definitely favored vs the rest of their schedule. Louisville will be #5 or #6 in the final rankings: they won't lose again, but their conference is relatively weak and they aren't winning the conference.
- The Big Ten is a mess. SAD! Ohio State looks unreal right now and very probably won't lose again. Michigan will challenge them, but OSU is slightly better and playing at home. Penn State will win the division because their last 2 opponents are awful, but will lose to Wisconsin in the conference title game. Wisconsin will end up #5 or #6; the committee will put OSU in the playoff, in part (and they won't say this) because they want to look 'objective' and 'forward-thinking' in their rankings (as they have pressure to prove they're better than the BCS was), and putting non-champ better-ranking better-team OSU in ahead of the conference champ with 2 losses would achieve that.
- The Big XII is on the outside looking in. Very weak conference right now. Oklahoma will end up highly ranked as an X-2 conference champ; maybe #7 or so. No one else comes close.
- WSU isn't a good team and has been feasting on *awful* teams. Washington will beat them to win the division. The Pac-12 South has three reasonably decent teams (USC, Colorado, Utah), all of whom are worse than Washington. Washington will win out, be unimpressive to the committee, but be virtually forced into the playoffs as a 1-loss conference champ.
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MODS : World Dip RIS-MarieByrd Problem
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