The Clemson football team is in prime position for getting back to the CFB Playoff. Here are scenarios and odds heading into Week 10.
The Clemson football team is currently the odds favorite to get back to the CFB Playoff at -370 heading into Week 10 of the season.
The Tigers improved to 8-0 with a win over Boston College this past weekend and now Clemson football will look to get through the month of November with an undefeated record.
Here’s a look at the CFB Playoff picture, as well as some scenarios, as we head into the month of November.
CFB Playoff Contenders (Teams Fighting For A Spot by Conference)
*A star indicates that the team is undefeated*
ACC: Clemson*
Big Ten: Ohio State*, Penn State*, Minnesota*
Big 12: Baylor*, Oklahoma
Pac-12: Oregon, Utah
SEC: Alabama*, LSU*, Florida, Georgia.
CFB Playoff Picture, Scenarios:
Heading into Week 10, there are still a lot of unknowns about the CFB Playoff picture. Clemson football has the straightest path to the playoff. The Tigers are in ‘win-and-get-in’ mode. If Clemson wins out, the Tigers should be in the field of four. If the Tigers lose, they’ll be out. Pretty simple.
The Big Ten still has three undefeated teams, but let’s not pretend that Minnesota is truly a playoff contender. The winner of the Penn State-Ohio State game will be in the driver’s seat, but they’ll still need to win-out to guarantee a spot.
Oklahoma lost to Kansas State this past weekend, so the Sooners could very well be out of the mix. Baylor is still undefeated, but like Minnesota, no one expects that to last through November. Oklahoma could work its way back into the mix with a team like Clemson or Ohio State losing.
The Pac-12 is on the outside-looking-in at this point. I don’t think the committee will take Utah or Oregon over a one-loss Oklahoma or even Ohio State, if that were to happen.
With Oklahoma’s loss, the SEC has a perceived path to get two teams into the playoff again. If the loser of LSU-Alabama goes undefeated (11-1 record), the committee would be very tempted to slide them in over a one-loss Big 12 champion in Oklahoma or any other one-loss conference champion.
Florida and Georgia both have one loss and could potentially get in if they went undefeated and won the SEC Championship, but that seems like a long shot.
The most interesting scenario includes this: Clemson wins out, Ohio State wins out, LSU wins out, Alabama loses to LSU and then wins out, Oklahoma wins out, and then a Pac-12 team wins out.
That would leave you with three undefeated conference champions and the committee would have to choose between a one-loss Oklahoma and Oregon- for example- with conference championships, or a one-loss Alabama team with no division win. I’d expect the committee to choose the Crimson Tide in that scenario. Not because that’s what they should do, but what I think they will do.
The Clemson football team just needs to take care of business and everything else will fall into place. The Tigers host Wofford at 4 p.m. this Saturday in Death Valley. They’ll finish up the season with a road game against NC State, a home tilt against Wake Forest, and then a road rivalry matchup with South Carolina before an expected ACC Championship game.