TNJN’s Week 10 College Football Playoff picks
TNJN’s College Football Playoff committee returns to put out the second edition of their weekly rankings.
Logo by Rob Heller.
With only a few days to go until the College Football Playoff committee releases their first set of rankings, the nation’s top teams are beginning to separate themselves from the pack of teams. Plenty of programs still have hope, but only a few have a realistic shot.
Without further ado, here are TNJN’s second College Football Playoff rankings.
1) Alabama Crimson Tide
The bye week didn’t do anything to slow the unstoppable Tide. The defending champions are still the country’s best team and have a handful of impressive performances on the season to prove it. The Alabama offense, led by freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts, continues to run through every defense that attempts to stop it. The special teams and defense have scored at an incredible and intimidating rate, with a non-offensive touchdown in every single game this year. There’s not much to say about the country’s most dominant team that hasn’t already been said many times over.
Résumé: Wins vs. USC, at Ole Miss, at Arkansas, at Tennessee and vs Texas A&M
What’s next: at LSU
2) Michigan Wolverines
Under the tutelage of head coach Jim Harbaugh, Michigan continues to dominate in the Big Ten, most recently with a 32-23 win over the Michigan State Spartans in East Lansing. Led in all three phases of the game – offense, defense, and special teams – by all-around superstar and Heisman candidate Jabrill Peppers, the Wolverines lead the nation in points allowed per game (11.6) and are third in points scored per game (46.6). Their most recent win was punctuated with a special teams score when Peppers recovered a fumble on the Spartans’ last-second two-point conversion attempt and returned it all the way to the opposing end zone.
Résumé: Wins vs. Colorado, Penn State, Wisconsin and at Michigan State
What’s next: vs. Maryland
3) Clemson Tigers
Dabo Swinney’s team escaped a close win at Florida State on Saturday and jumped into the third spot this week after finishing fourth in last week’s rankings. The season has been a struggle at times for the Tigers, but they’ve escaped with an unblemished 8-0 record (5-0 ACC) and a pair of important wins. Quarterback Deshaun Watson has struggled at times, but he and the defense (No. 11 in the nation at 17.6 points allowed per game) have done just enough to keep the Tigers in the Playoff picture so far.
Résumé: Wins at Auburn, vs. Louisville and at Florida State
What’s next: vs. Syracuse
4) Washington Huskies
There are questions about the difficulty of the Huskies’ schedule, but there should be no questions about their talent level. The Huskies have the nation’s fourth-highest scoring offense and the seventh-best defense. Quarterback Jake Browning has been incredible this year, completing 67.7 percent of his passes and throwing 28 touchdowns against only three interceptions, while also adding four rushing touchdowns to his totals as well. With four players on the defensive side of the ball (Joe Mathis, Psalm Wooching, Vita Vea and Greg Gaines) registering at least 3.5 sacks on the season, the Huskies also bring a well-rounded and intimidating defense to the table.
Résumé: Wins vs. Stanford, at Oregon and Utah
What’s next: at California
On the outside looking in
5) Louisville Cardinals
What needs to happen: The easiest way for Louisville to reach the Playoffs would be with a win an ACC Championship game. To get there, however, they would need Clemson to drop two of their remaining ACC games and with the Tigers winning in Tallahassee on Saturday, that’s looking unlikely. If the Cardinals are looking to join Clemson in the college football’s final four teams, they’ll need some chaos, which would probably come in the form of losses by Washington, Ohio State and Michigan.
6) Ohio State Buckeyes
What needs to happen: Ohio State needs a loss by Penn State, since the Nittany Lions own the tiebreaker thanks to their home win against the Buckeyes. If Penn State drops a conference game Ohio State manages to win its huge matchup at Michigan in late November, the Buckeyes will get a shot at the Big Ten title. If they win that, they would surely be a top choice to make the Playoff.
Voters
David Bradford: 1) Alabama, 2) Washington, 3) Michigan, 4) Clemson, 5) Louisville, 6) Auburn
Chase Carder: 1) Alabama, 2) Michigan, 3) Washington, 4) Clemson, 5) Louisville, 6) Ohio State
Robert Hughes: 1) Alabama, 2) Michigan, 3) Clemson, 4) Washington, 5) Louisville, 6) Ohio State
Jonathan Johnson: 1) Alabama, 2) Clemson, 3) Michigan, 4) Washington, 5) Louisville, 6) Ohio State
Dominic LoBianco: 1) Alabama, 2) Michigan, 3) Clemson, 4) Washington, 5) Ohio State, 6) Louisville
Ben McKee: 1) Alabama, 2) Michigan, 3) Clemson, 4) Washington, 5) Louisville, 6) Ohio State
Nathan Odom: 1) Alabama, 2) Clemson, 3) Michigan, 4) Washington, 5) Ohio State, 6) Louisville
Quinn Pilkey: 1) Alabama, 2) Michigan, 3) Clemson, 4) Washington, 5) Louisville, 6) Texas A&M
Matt Raymond: 1) Alabama, 2) Michigan, 3) Washington, 4) Clemson, 5) Louisville, 6) Ohio State
Danielle Whaley: 1) Alabama, 2) Michigan, 3) Louisville, 4) Washington, 5) Clemson, 6) Ohio State
David Wilson: 1) Alabama, 2) Michigan, 3) Clemson, 4) Washington, 5) Ohio State, 6) Texas A&M
Edited by David Bradford
Featured image by Rob Heller
Quinn is an assistant sports editor for TNJN and a sophomore majoring in Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennesse. When he's not writing, he's probably doing something else. You can follow him on Twitter (@QuinnNotCook) or e-mail him at qpilkey@vols.utk.edu.
