The Week 11 watch
Several conference championship races are going to be all but decided this week as the playoff picture is starting to come into focus.
We’ll have to continue to look West this week in another big one for the Pac-12 conference. There are two big games out there, both of which may prove to be nothing burgers but will have to be followed all the same in Utah at Washington and USC at Oregon.
Probably we won’t reach resolution on the Pac-12 and whether they will send someone to the playoffs until the conference championship game (likely a Washington vs Oregon rematch).
Btw, here’s the current playoff rankings, designed to give someone like me something to write about during the week:
Ohio State (9-0)
Georgia (9-0)
Michigan (9-0)
Florida State (9-0)
Washington (9-0)
Oregon (8-1)
Texas (8-1)
Alabama (8-1)
Ole Miss (8-1)
Penn State (8-1)
There’s a few things in there which have raised eyes, such as Oregon fitted one slot ahead of Texas who has the biggest win (Alabama on the road). The Ducks have impressed with some big margin wins. But ultimately none of this particularly matters. Most of these teams have to go through each other before the end.
The Midwest probably gets one of Ohio State and Michigan, the SEC West should get Alabama if they win out and claim the SEC crown, the rest of the southeast may get Georgia and Florida State, and the West could get the Pac-12 Champion in and/or Texas. It’s not hard to see how this will add up to four when all is said and done. The current ranking is meaningless, what matters is these are the teams who are “in it.”
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