College Football Rankings 2014: Official Week 7 Polls and Playoff Projections
After a crazy week of college football, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the College Football Playoff as the end of the season draws near.
Five of the top eight teams in the nation went down, and the teams that knocked them off are looking at their own bids to the postseason. Ole Miss, Mississippi State, TCU and Arizona might have earned surprise wins in Week 6, but they are all undefeated and have as much of a chance at reaching the playoff as any other FBS team.
The problem is there is a lot of football left to be played, as few teams have even reached the halfway mark of the season. A lot can change in the rankings, and conference matchups continue to get tougher.
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Here is a look at the latest rankings heading into Week 7, although the projected playoff might seem a bit different as we predict what will happen for the rest of the season.
| Florida State | 1 | Florida State |
| Auburn | 2 | Auburn |
| Mississippi St./Ole Miss | 3* | Baylor |
| - | 4 | Ole Miss |
| Baylor | 5 | Notre Dame |
| Notre Dame | 6 | Mississippi State |
| Alabama | 7 | Alabama |
| Michigan State | 8 | Michigan State |
| TCU | 9 | Oklahoma |
| Arizona | 10 | Georgia |
| Oklahoma | 11 | Oregon |
| Oregon | 12 | TCU |
| Georgia | 13 | Arizona |
| Texas A&M | 14 | Texas A&M |
| Ohio State | 15 | Ohio State |
| Oklahoma State | 16 | Kansas State |
| Kansas State | 17 | UCLA |
| UCLA | 18 | Oklahoma State |
| East Carolina | 19 | East Carolina |
| Arizona State | 20 | Arizona State |
| Nebraska | 21 | Nebraska |
| Georgia Tech | 22 | Stanford |
| Missouri | 23 | Georgia Tech |
| Utah | 24 | Missouri |
| Stanford | 25 | Clemson |
College Football Playoff Projection
| 1 | Florida State (5-0) |
| 2 | Auburn (5-0) |
| 3 | Baylor (5-0) |
| 4 | Oregon (4-1) |
If the season ended today, there would likely be two, if not three SEC teams in the College Football Playoff. Auburn, Ole Miss and Mississippi State remain undefeated, while Alabama and Texas A&M are not too far behind.
However, it is a long season in what is clearly the toughest division in the country. The top team will be lucky to come away with just one loss, while the others will probably end up with at least two defeats.
It might not take an undefeated record to get into the playoff based on all the losses we have seen around the nation, but it is hard to imagine a two-loss squad getting into the discussion over a team with a better record.
This forces us to choose the best team in the SEC, and that leaves Auburn after showing that it is really the best in all of college football to this point in the year. Bleacher Report's Barrett Sallee believes the Tigers should be ranked above Florida State:
Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN agrees and puts them as the top team:
While the Tigers might lose a game this season—something that could even come Saturday at Mississippi State—this is a great squad that was also unafraid to go out and schedule a non-conference road game against a very good Kansas State team.
Auburn should be able to survive the SEC and earn a spot in the playoff while the rest of the conference struggles to stay consistent enough to earn a spot.
The path to the playoff would not be as difficult for either Florida State or Baylor. The Seminoles survived arguably their toughest conference foe in Clemson despite not having Jameis Winston for the entire game.
Notre Dame could end up pulling off an upset, but the game will be in Tallahassee. As long as Florida State walks away with a victory, it should be able to keep winning until it earns a spot in the playoff.
Baylor will have a tougher road in the Big 12, although matchups against TCU, Oklahoma State and Kansas State are all at home. This leaves just a road game at Oklahoma as the toughest test on the path to an undefeated regular season.
While the Bears have not faced the most difficult schedule to this point, they have an explosive offense that should be able to keep the team in the win column for the rest of the year.
As for Oregon, head coach Mark Helfrich knows the latest loss could be damaging but told reporters after the game that he believes there is an opportunity for redemption:
"As soon as your record isn't hyphen zero you lose the con and so from that standpoint it's a little bit frustrating but we can't do anything about that now, just like we can't do anything about winning the previous game, you can't do anything about losing the previous game if you don't handle your business moving forward. I think there's going to be a ton of movement nationally as well as in our conference. This is a tough conference, as we've said for a long time, couple with the toughest path to the playoff.
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Despite being behind four different one-loss teams in the latest Amway Coaches Poll, Oregon has a chance to end up with some good wins against UCLA, Stanford and whomever it will face in the Pac-12 Championship Game, not to mention the victory over Michigan State earlier in the season.
If the Ducks can run the table, they would be extremely difficult to keep out of the playoff. Luckily, they have the talent to pull off this feat and join the rest of the top squads for an exciting postseason.
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