College Football Playoff rankings for Nov. 29 released

By Kevin Kelley -

The College Football Playoff Rankings for Nov. 29 have been released by the Selection Committee, and Alabama remains in first place.

Alabama is first and is followed by Ohio State in 2nd, Clemson in 3rd, and Washington in 4th. Just outside the top four are fifth-ranked Michigan, sixth-ranked Wisconsin, and seventh-ranked Penn State.

Western Michigan (17th) is currently the highest ranked team from a Group of Five conference.

College Football Playoff Rankings (Nov. 29)

1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Clemson
4. Washington
5. Michigan
6. Wisconsin
7. Penn State
8. Colorado
9. Oklahoma
10. Oklahoma State
11. USC
12. Florida State
13. Louisville
14. Auburn
15. Florida
16. West Virginia
17. Western Michigan
18. Stanford
19. Navy
20. Utah
21. LSU
22. Tennessee
23. Virginia Tech
24. Houston
25. Pittsburgh

On Sunday, Dec. 4 at Noon ET, the selection committee will announce their final rankings, Playoff Semifinal matchups, and the New Year’s bowl pairings.

CFP Rankings Release Schedule

  • December 4 (Selection Day and Playoff Semifinal teams announced) – Noon ET

2016-17 Bowl Schedule

Comments (25)

I truly do believe that the committee thinks that The Ohio State is the only one team that can beat Bama, they are eye candy & find ways to win. I don’t think Wisconsin or Penn St can jump any one if Washington & Clemson win out. If Bama loses to Florida, they’re still in. If Washington & Clemson win then this ranking may change a bit but Buckeyes will remain in. I also think the committee wants to see a rematch in the Michigan vs Ohio State game, if Washington & CLemson lose, I can see Michigan sneaking back in but then you will have two BIG teams in without even winning their conference championship. Oklahoma is to far down to jump to 4, unless they beat the Cowboys 59-0. No way to cut it, if either Washington or Clemson lose, depending on how they lose, we may have two BIG teams in the CFP.

Alabama and Ohio State are in.
If Clemson and Washington win, then it has to be, yes, 3 Big Ten teams in the final 4: winner of PSU/Wisconsin and Michigan.
Here me out:
1.) If Colorado beats Washington, then Michigan advances over Colorado, as they have the head-to-head, 10-2 record vs 10-3 record, and a better record vs top teams: wheres Michigan is 3-1 vs top 10 teams (wins over PSU, Wisc, and Colorado, loss to Ohio State in 2OT) and has a loss vs 8-4 Iowa), Colorado would 1-2 vs Top 10 teams (USC and Michigan) and wins over Stanford, Utah and 8-4 Wash State. Yes, Colorado had a back-up QB, but Michigan’s QB was also hurt in a couple games. The only way Colorado can get in is if they dominate Washington. I think Michigan edges Colorado for the 4 seed.
2.) The winner of PSU/Wisconsin deserves it. PSU lost to ranked Pitt and blown out by Michigan but beat 8-4 Iowa and Minnesota, beat good Temple, and beat Ohio State and Wisconsin in champ game. OR Wisconsin lost to Ohio State and Michigan by a late TD on road, but beat LSU, Iowa, Nebraska, Minn and Penn State in champ game.
3.) The winner of Oklahoma vs OKState is a no go. The reason, Oklahoma got handedly beaten by Ohio State and Houston and went undefeated in a very down Big12. OKState got beaten by weak Central Michigan and Baylor. Now they did beat Pitt and Oklahoma, and that end result to CMU was very unfair, but the loss to Baylor really hurt them and they didn’t have a game to make it up, which Michigan did have (Colorado, Wisc and PSU).
4.) Michigan only gets in if Clemson and Washington lose. If only one of them loses, the winner of Wisc/PSU gets in. There is no way committee can justify PSU beating Wisconsin and not getting into final slot should a spot open with a loss. It’s about how you finish, and PSU has finished strong.

Why does is Ohio State second? Penn State should be there, because PSU is a Division winner.

SEC vs Power 5

FSU vs, Florida – 31-13 – L
Tenn. Va. Tech -45 – 24 – W
Georgia vs UNC 33-24, vs Tech 28-27 W/L
Kentucky vs. Louisville W – 41-38,
S.Carolina vs Clemson – L – 56 -7
Vandy vs G.Tech – L – 38 -7
Mizzz vs WVU – L – 26-11

SEC East 3-5

Bama vs, USC 52-6 – W
Auburn vs. Clem L – 19-13
LSU vs Wisky – L – 16-14
Texas A&M vs UCLA – W – 31-24
Arkansas vs TCU – W – 41 – 38
Mississippi State vs BYU – L – 28-21
Ole Miss vs Florida State – L – 45 -34

SEC West – 3-4

Florida State
Clemson
G.Tech

6-0 vs SEC

Overall Record – 6-9

Save ‘Bama, the SEC is treading on Big 12, Mountain West, water…..

I don’t understand why Louisville drops below FSU when they beat them 63-20.

Also don’t understand how some teams fall out of the rankings yet Tennessee stays after losing to Vanderbilt. Do they even look at the resumes during the process?

I think OSU is probably the best team in the B1G, but with them not even winning the division I don’t think they should go. At this point I would put in Bama, Wisconsin/PSU winner, and Washington/Clemson if they win. If Washington or Clemson do not win, I’d go with the winner of OK/OSU. This is why it needs to go to at least 8 – all 5 P5 winners, 1 G5 rep, 2 wild cards, first round is all played at the higher seed’s school.

Can’t wait to see the excuses fans of other leagues offer up when the SEC runs through their bowl schedule. It’s one of the most fun times of the year.

Congrats to the SEC. They went 13-0 against FCS opponents, better than the all other P5 conferences. Clearly the best conference this year.

Clearly.

Glad to see you coming around. They also beat a lot of good teams this year, North Carolina, USC, Virginia Tech, etc.

Every other conference’s big wins came if they were fortunate enough to beat an SEC team. That should tell you something.

Like I said, after the bowl games, we’ll get to hear the same old tired excuses: The bowls are all down south, the Big Ten wasn’t into the game, blah, blah, blah.

Must suck being a fan of a conference whose glory days were forty years ago.

Define having a good bowl season? Is this based on W-L? Is it based on beating P5 schools or teams ranked higher than you? You seem to change the narrative to support your position so if you are as confident that the SEC is going to have a good bowl season as you are, y don’t you define what a “good” bowl season means to you.

Why wait for the Bowl Season? Look at the Regular Season.

SEC vs Power 5 –

Overall Record 6-9

FSU vs, Florida – 31-13 – L
Tenn. Va. Tech -45 – 24 – W
Georgia vs UNC 33-24, vs Tech 28-27 W/L
Kentucky vs. Louisville W – 41-38,
S.Carolina vs Clemson – L – 56 -7
Vandy vs G.Tech – L – 38 -7
Mizzz vs WVU – L – 26-11

SEC East 3-5

Bama vs, USC 52-6 – W
Auburn vs. Clem L – 19-13
LSU vs Wisky – L – 16-14
Texas A&M vs UCLA – W – 31-24
Arkansas vs TCU – W – 41 – 38
Mississippi State vs BYU – L – 28-21
Ole Miss vs Florida State – L – 45 -34

SEC West – 3-4

Florida State
Clemson
G.Tech
6-0 vs SEC

Overall 6-9 Record – 2 W’s by a TD or less……….

JackStriker,
Yes, we get it, you hate the SEC & luv to show everyone, I guess I could post the 9-2 bowl record from the SEC last year but I have to much time on my hands. btw, I think you missed a couple of articles on where this can be posted, unless they keep taking them down because you keep repeating yourself.

Haha…

Notice he’s already setting up the excuses? Well the SEC was the higher ranked team! The bowl games are in SEC territory! The officials were paid off! Whatever it will be, it will be the same, tired, recycled, boring points they’ve made a thousand times… and while the haters hate, the SEC just continues to make every other conference in the country look bad.

It’s funny, though, that when LSU went to the National Title to play Alabama their argument was that you should have to be a Conference Champ… but now with Ohio State they aren’t making that argument.

That alone proves that their argument is based not on facts, rather on just plain old hate for the SEC because they know the SEC is best.

Setting up for what excuses Joe? I’m not sitting here saying the ACC or B10 are going to run the table in bowl season, that is what you are doing only for the SEC. You don’t have much history of self-accountability. You are making bold predictions about the SEC for bowl season so I am simply asking you to define what you mean by a “good bowl season.” We all know that regardless of whether the SEC goes 3-7 or 7-3 you will somehow contort the result to show the SEC as the dominant conference. All I am trying to do have you set your parameters so that when you are bragging about the SEC a month from now, we can at least fact check to make sure you didn’t change your evaluation criteria to fit your argument. Kind of like when you stated early on in the regular season when the B10 was dominating in the non-conference, that the SEC still had a lot of non-conference games remaining and by the end of it the SEC would be on top. Well the rest of the reason happened and the SEC finished 6-9 vs the P5 but again, congrats on those FCS wins.

Watching Ohio State and Michigan play after having watched Washington DISMANTLE WSU, a very good team, on both O and D, makes me wonder why the former two teams weren’t BOTH dropped to 5 and below. Neither team brought much of an offense and both defenses were decent but not spectacular. They had to bumble their way through a second overtime to determine a winner. But of course there is a degree of Selection Committee bias that makes a PAC 12 fan want to puke.

Your post appears to have a little PAC 12 bias. My guess is what the committee has been seeing is that the PAC 12 is 2-5 vs. the ACC, B10 and SEC and their best non-conference win is against Kansas St. They also are probably a little weary that the best team in the PAC-12 (Washington) didn’t play anyone in the non-conference and lost somewhat convincingly to a team that lost 52-6 to Alabama. You may not have found Michigan v Ohio State to be the most appealing game to watch, but that doesn’t mean both teams are not top 5 teams. Your logic would suggest that Alabama should have been dropped from the top 5 when they played an ugly 10-0 game vs. LSU but it is pretty clear Alabama is the best team right now. That said, if Washington wins this week, they should without question be in the playoff.

Jeff, you’re absolutely right, I’m biased (Washington alum), but anyone living on the West Coast as long as I have will have noticed the Eastern bias (which includes the “Midwest”). It’s probably a function of the SPDPSM (Sports Pundit Density Per Square Meter). I’m not claiming Michigan and Ohio State aren’t and haven’t been great teams. But the rules of the rankings game should be fairly applied. Each week is unique at this point in the season. Some teams are peaking and some are on the skids. The committee, rightly, assesses things week to week. There is no logic by which two adjacent teams turning in mediocre performances should move in the rankings in the way OSU and Michigan did this week. Had Washington lost in double overtime to WSU last Friday they’d be sitting at No. 7, tops, right now.

While living my young adult years in Chicago, I well remember when most of those who weren’t Catholic hated Notre Dame and most everyone hated the Crimson Tide teams of the Bear. After moving back south to Atlanta, the hatred of both was still there. This just proves the point that the teams who win consistently, are the ones who are currently hated. Being a native Alabamian and eventually moving to Tuscaloosa, where I played in the band in the 1954 Cotton Bowl loss, followed by a disastrous 3 years, it was great coming back to see the Tide finally end our far too long losing streak.

Yeah, we appreciate being hated, for that is what winning team almost always experience.

Playoff Committee just shows that rather than resolve the problems BCS had, it has only added more problematic elements. Now instead of computational challenges, we’ve got a group of people, whom a handful have little to no knowledge of collegiate athletics, are voting who is better than the other, by their own opinion. It’s like me claiming that chain pizzas are better that local owned pizzas because they allow me to drizzle sauce or stuff the crust. You can look at these rankings and see the factual data, but then cast questionable, reasonable doubt as to why or why not particular teams should remain or move up or down. Now they find themselves backpedaling on elements that they had originally considered to make teams more likely to be in the playoff, and once again they’re probably going to find themselves in an Albama vs. LSU predicament. If you want to make things right, you have to implement elements from the BCS system that worked along with playoff elements with today’s system. Championships SHOULD matter, and champions, plus incredibly impressive teams should be considered…and yes, I’m going with the suggestion of a 8 team playoff…other than that, get rid of that trophy and bring back the crystal ball. This new one is disturbing depending how you look at it: bottom up, eyeliner bottle; top down, torch (or fleshlight…yuck).

Nothing will ever change with people complaining about how college football should be handled at the end of the year. They complained before the BCS, then they complained during the BCS & last year they already started complaining about the new system. No one will ever be happy, I hope the top four stay in their places cause if we are already going to have The Ohio State in the playoffs due to eye candy, even though they’re not playing in champion game, this will be not much changed from the BCS, I agree with you on that. The committee is looking for the 4 top teams in America, clearly Bama & Buckeyes fit that description, Clemson is an outstanding team but have been in many close games this year, watch out of the Hokies. Washington OOC schedule was terrible & losing one game did not help, they’re making up for it now & I don’t see Colorado winning that game so I would say they’re in. I do think the committee wants to see a rematch with Buckeyes vs Wolverines & that would make for some great rankings & TV viewership. If we go to 8 teams there will be nothing but more drama because it never ends the way we think it will at the end of the season, I don’t even see W.Michigan getting into it. You would have at least 4 BIG teams in right now & I clearly don’t see any G5 coming close. As of right now I would say keep the 65 team playoffs to March Madness.

I agree that conference championships should matter. But I don’t agree that they should be the end all be all that many seem to suggest. Think about it, if you truly believe that conference championships should be the deciding factor then if Florida beats Alabama on Saturday, your saying Florida should go ahead of Alabama? That would be absurd. Sure Florida might be able to beat Alabama a few times out of a hundred, but that doesn’t make them better. When it comes to the argument between Ohio State and Penn St, it is absurd to put Penn St ahead of Ohio State even if Penn St wins the B10 championship. Penn St has 2 losses and OSU has 1. If Penn St had a better schedule than Ohio St then sure, maybe you can compare them a little more evenly but they don’t. Ohio St has 3 top 10 wins, PSU (assuming they beat Wisc) has 2. OSU’s top 3 road wins are Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Maryland while PSU’s are Indiana, Purdue and Rutgers. OSU’s overall strength of schedule blows PSU’s out of the water. So yes, conference championships should matter, but only when you have two comparable teams and OSU and PSU are not comparable.

O-Da-Doo-Da-Day and Billy Bob Joe

Are already brining up last year’s bowl record in a misguided way of trying to justify why the SEC got stomped this season. Talk about living in the past of a conference that has become to all accept the knowledgeable; ‘Bama and 13 little pickaninnies.

6-9 vs. Power 5 – THIS SEASON – NOT THE UPCOMING BOWL SEASON – NOT LAST SEASON –

6-9 THIS SEASON OOC VS P5 IN 2016

Wow! What an arsenal you have in your vocabulary! BTW, it’s not ‘O-Da-Doo-Da-Day’ it’s ‘O-Doo-Da-Day’. Your “…Bama and 13 little pickaninnies is totally uncalled for.

But but but we play in the SEC! So that automatically makes us the best!

Haha the comments on here make me laugh time and time again!