When the College Football Playoffs rankings are released tomorrow, the Nebraska football team won't be anywhere near them. Obviously. On the other hand, remember when head coach Matt Rhule said he thinks four Big Ten teams should get in most if not every year? Remember when he became a national punching bag for a few days for that outrageous comment?
It turns out that four Big Ten teams is not only possible in this year's field, but likely. Especially when you consider that Penn State didn't pay much of a price for losing to Ohio State. That loss dropped them from 3rd to 6th in the AP Poll, still very much in the picture for a shot at the title.
With the College Football Playoffs rankings release just around the corner. It will certainly be interesting to see how closely they resemble these projections. If they're not including four Big Ten teams, then that's a problem.
Week 10 College Football Playoff prediction includes 4 B1G teams
Rank | Team | Why Are They Here | Previous Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Oregon | Big Ten Champ | 1 |
2 | Georgia | SEC Champ | 2 |
3 | Miami | ACC Champ | 7 |
4 | BYU | Big 12 Champ | 9 |
5 | Ohio State | At Large | 4 |
6 | Notre Dame | At Large | 8 |
7 | Indiana | At Large | NR |
8 | Texas | At Large | 5 |
9 | SMU | At Large | NR |
10 | Alabama | At Large | 11 |
11 | Boise State | Mountain West | 12 |
12 | Penn State | At Large | 3 |
Oregon, Ohio State, Indiana and then Penn State squeaking in make up the four Big Ten teams in the field. Interestingly enough, that there isn't a ton of crossing of swords among those four teams the rest of the way. That is of course, the biggest reason why they all make it in.
Readers might also notice that the SEC only gets two teams in and that the ACC is finally looking like they might get two teams in the field. While most people aren't impressed by the difficulty of the ACC, SMU is looking like they made the right decision by moving out of the Group of 5 and immediately getting himself into the College Football Playoffs.