The penultimate College Football Playoff rankings are out. And it appears that there are 8 teams who have a shot at the Playoff. And I’ll explain how the top-8 teams make the playoffs. The four Power-5 undefeated teams take up the 1-4 spots. Georgia remains #1 while Michigan, Washington, and Florida State round out the top-4. That’s all well and good. However the placement of the next four is the more interesting discussion. Oregon remains at #5, followed by Ohio State falling to #6 with Texas and Alabama falling in the 7 and 8 spots. Michigan seems to be the closest team to a lock on this list. They’re somewhere around a three and a half touchdown favorite over the Iowa Hawkeyes. The first step for how the top-8 teams make the playoffs is to win your game this weekend (sorry Ohio State).
Oregon and Washington will start the playoff elimination series on Friday night in the PAC-12 Championship. This basically amounts to a CFP elimination game. Looking at what the committee did beyond the top-8 is just as interesting. I have long held the opinion that the committee stacks the deck to fit the narrative they want. Florida State fans should feel relieved that Louisville only fell 4 spots to 14. The SEC continues to get a ton of respect from the committee. Some would argue too much respect. Regardless the conference still has 5 of the top-11. Is this the committee stacking the deck so the conference champ gets in no matter what? Or stacking the deck so the loser has a shot? Here’s how the top-8 teams make the playoffs heading into Conference Championship weekend.