Alabama Football: First Top 8 College Football Playoff Rankings

The Aggies are probably the most under the radar team in 2020. They are a quiet 5-1 with their only loss coming against undefeated Alabama football. It hasn’t been pretty at times and they won’t wow you if you watch them, but they win the games they are supposed to win, and they beat Florida which is a HUGE plus for their resume. They don’t have a Heisman candidate like Florida and Alabama football, but they get the job done.

If Alabama football closes out the SEC West division with a win next week, Texas A&M will likely get to face Ole Miss during the SEC Championship weekend rather than Florida. A much easier path you could say. They would be rooting for the Crimson Tide to win that game and for Clemson to lose again. Then, assuming Ohio St, BYU, and Cincinnati win out, they would be in discussion with undefeated BYU and Cincy as to who gets the last spot. First things first, they have to win out.

The Clemson Tigers are probably not a surprise here. Their only loss on the season came when their Heisman candidate QB was unable to play due to Covid restrictions and it was an OT loss at that. The committee does consider injuries/illnesses when they are making decisions and this might be the first time where that comes into play. Would Clemson have beaten Notre Dame with Trevor Lawrence? Maybe, but the fact remains that they are 7-1, not 8-0 and are tied for 2nd place in the ACC.

The ACC in 2020 moved to a one division format just for this season. This means that the top two teams regardless of division will make the ACC championship game. Clemson is currently tied with Miami for number 2, but by virtue of their win over Miami, they would make the championship game.

The loss to Notre Dame stings, but it is the “best loss” by any of the one-loss teams in the country. If Clemson wins out, they are in. If they lose again, even if it is to Notre Dame a second time, they are most likely out, barring chaos across the country in the last few weeks of the season.

The Buckeyes are clearly one of the best teams in the country even though they have only played four games so far. They have shown they have the firepower to beat anybody in college football. We thought, prior to the beginning of the Big Ten’s schedule, that the Big Ten might be the best bet to get two teams into the Playoff, but those hopes are fading fast with losses by Wisconsin and Indiana. The conference’s best hope now is probably Northwestern (Crazy right?!) who is 5-0 and beat the aforementioned Wisconsin Badgers.

The rest of the Ohio State schedule is not very strong. They close out 2020 with games against Illinois, Michigan State, and Michigan. None of which even have a winning record. The Michigan game could still be competitive as rivalries tend to be, but nobody is expecting Ohio State to lose a game.

If current standings bear out they would actually face Northwestern during the Big Ten’s “Champions Week” which is just a glorified inter-divisional week that includes the Big Ten championship game. At this point, nobody expects Northwestern to pose much of a threat to Ohio State, so in all likelihood, Ohio State will be 8-0 and make the college football playoff.

This does leave us with one question though. Will the committee penalize a team that doesn’t play a certain amount of games?