2017-18 FBS Rankings

SoxJox

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The first FBS rankings come out tomorrow.

From CollegeFootballPlayoff.com:

Rankings will be issued six times in 2017, beginning Tuesday, October 31. The final rankings will be released on Selection Day, Sunday, December 3.
  • Tuesday, October 31
  • Tuesday, November 7
  • Tuesday, November 14
  • Tuesday, November 21
  • Tuesday, November 28
  • Sunday, December 3 (Selection Day and Playoff Semifinal teams announced)

Each week, the rankings will be exclusively revealed on ESPN's College Football Playoff: Top 25 show.

Date Time (ET) Show Network
October 31 7 p.m. College Football Playoff: Top 25 ESPN
November 7 7 p.m. College Football Playoff: Top 25 ESPN
November 14 9 p.m. College Football Playoff: Top 25 (From Champions Classic) ESPN
November 21 7 p.m. College Football Playoff: Top 25 ESPN
November 28 7 p.m. College Football Playoff: Top 25 ESPN
December 3 Noon College Football Playoff: Top 25 Selection Show ESP
 

SoxJox

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From the CBS, the current projected playoff teams are (1) Alabama, (2) OSU, (3) Clemson, and (4) Penn State. There will be a lot of arguing over that 4th spot given PSU dropping to #7 in both polls after Saturday's loss to OSU.

And, as the article also points out:

Penn State's schedule strength is beginning to suffer. Michigan State's triple-overtime loss at Northwestern on Saturday means that if both Ohio State and Penn State win out, as projected, then Michigan will have to win at Wisconsin in order to have a chance to finish with nine wins. If that does not happen, Penn State may not have a victory over a team with more than eight wins. The Wolverines, Spartans and Wildcats are expected to reach that total. The only other teams on Penn State's schedule expected to finish above .500 are Iowa and Georgia State.
 

Senator Donut

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Those are end of year projections; I'd be shocked if Georgia is not selected first or second tonight.
 

gmogmo

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Top 10 prediction for tonight, pretty confident in 1-4 and 7, the interesting thing will be 5 and 6:

1) Georgia
2) Bama
3) ND
4) Clemson
5) Ohio State
6) Oklahoma (if OU beats OSU this week, they'd flip-flop next week)
7) Penn State
8) Wisconsin
9) Miami
10) Ok State
 
Aug 24, 2017
397
Here's mine:

1) Georgia
2) Bama
3) Ohio State
4) Clemson
5) ND
6) Oklahoma
7) Wisconsin
8) Ok State
9) Penn State
10) Miami
 

Vinho Tinto

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Baker Mayfield wisely voiced that OU should be ahead of Ohio State. This is a political game and Big 10 schools have a ton of clout.

1) Alabama
2) Georgia
3) Oklahoma
4) Ohio State
5) Clemson
 

SoxJox

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Based on beating Ohio State. That was the same argument that Penn State had last year, and even though adding the B1G Championship to the resume, the Lions were left out in favor of the Tree Nuts. Of course, PSU had 2 losses, as did OU last year, Mayfield may be right if they don't lose again. But OK State and TCU present big challenges. And even WVa is no pushover.
 

Sportsbstn

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For the first time in a quite some time there seems to be 4-5 teams capable of winning the national championship. Notre Dame at 3 is still shocking based of where people saw them at the season start.
 

PaulinMyrBch

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Interesting to see where it stacks up tomorrow. I don't think the top 5 change. But I'm curious to see what they do with Wisconsin considering the top Big10 teams decided to take the year off.

This week simplifies it some. Matchups with likely ranks. Wisconsin (7)/Iowa, ND(3)/Miami(8), TCU(6)/Oklahoma(5) all play.

As most of you know, I see Clemson up close and I don't think they're a legitimate threat to win it all if they make the final 4. Defense, which was supposed to be one of the best in the country, has struggled for 3 games and they don't have the offensive consistency they need to score to make up for a bad day on D or some turnovers. With DW4 in the pros, I think even Clemson fans are realizing the amount of offense he provided was taken for granted somewhat. And we realized how special he was, but scoring when they needed and late in games was never really an issue and its just not as easy this year. Clemson could struggle and possibly lose any of these three - FSU - home (still dangerous), Gamecocks - away (obviously stronger that expected), ACC Champ game (Likely Miami). Again, offense isn't putting up elite level points and the D had been average lately.

This shit is getting fun though. Going to be a hell of a month.
 

gmogmo

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Did pretty well last week, here's this weeks attempt:

1) UGA
2) Bama
3) ND
4) Clemson
5) Oklahoma
6) TCU
7) Miami
8) Wisconsin
9) Washington
10) Auburn
 

gmogmo

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I feel highly confident I won't come close to matching last weeks 10 for 10:

1) Bama
2) Oklahoma
3) Miami
4) Clemson
5) Georgia
6) Wisconsin
7) Auburn
8) Notre Dame
9) Ohio State
10) USC
 

PaulinMyrBch

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Clemson has a season's worth of work the committee is recognizing even though they haven't passed the eye test recently. Getting a pass for KB being hurt against Syracuse. I think they feel that Clemson wins that game if he was healthy. Remember he played hurt with the ankle before leaving after he was knocked out. So they seem to be giving them a pass for that. Plus now the Auburn win might be the best win on the board based on current rankings. Lots of things still are going to shake this up. Should be crazy.
 

Infield Infidel

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So Alabama seems in the playoff. Either they win out (13-0), or they lose this week (11-1), or they win this week and lose next week (12-1). Only way I can conceive of Bama not getting in is if Auburn crushes them and it leaves a bad last impression.

Georgia, Auburn, Clemson, Oklahoma seem like they have to win out to get in. Miami could lose a squeaker and still make it. Wisconsin seems like they need Oklahoma and either Auburn/Georgia to lose. Not to mention someone outside of the Iron Bowl could get upset this week.
 

gmogmo

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The key this week is where Bama is vs. Ohio State, here's my guess/hope because I'd much rather see Bama in the playoff than Ohio State if they win the Big 10:

1) Clemson
2) Auburn
3) Oklahoma
4) Alabama
5) Wisconsin
6) Georgia
7) Miami
8) Ohio State
9) Penn State
10) USC
 

Ale Xander

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Expect:
1. Clemson
2. Oklahoma
3. Wisconsin
4. Auburn
5. Alabama
6. Georgia
7. U
8. OSU
9. PSU
10. USC

"should" be
1. Clemson
2. Oklahoma
3. Auburn
4. Georgia
5. Alabama
6. Wisconsin
7. U
8. UCF
9. USC
10. OSU
 

BigMike

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I just can't forgive Clemson for the Cuse game and put them #1, they are #3 on my board. I watched that game, and they were dominated start to finish, and needed a ton of good fortune to be close at the half. Maybe they pull it out if KB played the second half, but not if he played like he did in the first half

If Georgia beats Auburn this weekend they end up my #1 seed. Okie #2 with a win
 
Aug 24, 2017
397
But it's hard to knock Clemson when they beat Auburn. It's a weird year in CFB, no dominate team and not really any elite teams. In Bill Connelly's S&P+ he notes that Wisconsin basically had the same season as last year which was good enough for like 18th in those rankings but this year is good enough for 5th or 6th. Any one of the top 8 (or so) teams look like they could win the National Championship if they played two great games.

Having watched a shitload of college football this year here's my list of the ten best teams. This is the ten best teams based on my viewing them and not taking into account transitive property stuff and when their losses occurred and so on and so forth.

1. Oklahoma
2. Wisconsin
3. Clemson
4. Auburn
5. Georgia
6. Ohio State
7. Alabama
8. Penn State
9. TCU
10. Stanford
 

PaulinMyrBch

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Everyone has issues. Oklahoma lost at home to Iowa State. Wisconsin has the schedule. Auburn has 2 losses and were held to 117 yards of offense against Clemson. So you can’t look at that and jump a 2 loss team over a team that has 1 loss plus the HTH. People want to talk about Stidham’s first game, it was Bryant’s first game as well.

I think the committee has it right going into the final weekend.
 
Aug 24, 2017
397
Iowa State is a much better team than Syracuse though and Oklahoma has the win against Ohio State which is (to me) as good as the Clemson win over Auburn (remember Auburn lost to LSU who lost to freaking Troy so once you go down the transitive path it gets messy).
 
Aug 20, 2017
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Iowa State is a much better team than Syracuse though and Oklahoma has the win against Ohio State which is (to me) as good as the Clemson win over Auburn (remember Auburn lost to LSU who lost to freaking Troy so once you go down the transitive path it gets messy).
LSU also could’ve easily lost to Syracuse and their win against 4-9 BYU was thought to be dominating.

I like UGA a lot, but good lord is the SEC East god awful. I hope that all top seeds win to keep Bama out, but I doubt it happens that way.
 

PaulinMyrBch

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Iowa State is a much better team than Syracuse though and Oklahoma has the win against Ohio State which is (to me) as good as the Clemson win over Auburn (remember Auburn lost to LSU who lost to freaking Troy so once you go down the transitive path it gets messy).
You obviously don’t know much about Troy. Put them in the SEC East and they probably finish 2nd or 3rd.
 
Aug 24, 2017
397
I actually do know a little (though I've never watched them) about Troy just because they keep placing so high in S&P+ so I've been curious.

They are clearly a good football team but e can agree to disagree about them finishing 2nd or 3rd in the SEC East. Boise State beat them fairly easily. They lost to South Alabama and not just like a last second loss. They got trounced by the team that finished 7th in the Sun Belt! And they eeked by Idaho and New Mexico State.

Regardless, losing at home to Troy is a terrible loss for LSU. Related to this discussion, losing to LSU is a bad loss for Auburn.
 

SoxJox

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The problem, or challenge, though is that team dynamics change throughout the course of the year. As a Penn State fan, the best example I can provide is last year's loss to Michigan, followed by a run on the rest of the schedule. The team that faced Whiskey in the B1G Championship was in no way the same team that lost to the Wolverines. I'm not offering it as an excuse, but Penn State was missing about 1/2 their defensive starters. I could go on, but the head-to-head comparisons aren't that simple even within a single season. Although I agree, a home loss to Troy...ouch.