College Football Playoff 2014: Official Selection Committee Rankings for Week 11
For the College Football Playoff committee, Week 10 played out as an affirmation of its assumptions. Mississippi State, Florida State and Auburn each earned hard-fought victories, while other potential spoilers began falling by the wayside.
So it should be no surprise that the committee's second meeting was a lot more self-explanatory. As expected, the trio atop last week's landscape remained in a state of inertia, while former No. 5 team Oregon slid into the final opening.
Idle Alabama and an ascending TCU outfit represent the last two teams waiting for their higher-ranked adversaries to falter. Here is a full look at how the rest of the committee's Top 25 played out:
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While the major changes were few and far between atop the poll, the nation's elite did their best to give their respective fanbases heart attacks. Florida State started the weekend of near-upsets with a thrilling comeback from 21 points down against Louisville on Thursday.
Jameis Winston, who threw three interceptions in the first 31 minutes of the game, atoned for his mistakes with three second-half touchdowns and 401 passing yards. The reigning Heisman winner turned around what was shaping up to be the worst performance of his career on the third interception, when he forced a fumble on Gerod Holliman's return.
Starting with its next possession, Florida State would outscore Louisville, 35-7, en route to a 42-31 victory. The Seminoles have now been legitimately scared six times in eight games, including their 17-point comeback against NC State that became a similar double-digit win. Those close calls are in stark contrast to 2013, when Winston and Co. didn't allow a regular-season opponent closer than two touchdowns in one of the most dominant campaigns on record.
Coach Jimbo Fisher juxtaposed the two seasons for Andrea Adelson of ESPN.com:
"We’re a different team because people look at us differently. Last year, we were the team that was trying to climb, so sometimes they know you’re a good team, but when you’ve won a championship and you’re winning the way we’re winning now, people are going to give you their A-game. They’re going to come prepared, and our kids are learning to do that and learning to persevere in those situations.
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Mississippi State, the nation's other Power Five unbeaten, also needed a second-half resurgence against Arkansas. The Bulldogs went down, 10-0, early in the first half before scoring the game's final 17 points—though it was not without help. Alex Collins was stopped on a 4th-and-goal run from the Bulldogs' 3-yard line, and Brandon Allen threw a game-clinching interception to Will Redmond inside the red zone in the fourth quarter.
Those were Arkansas' only possessions after a 69-yard pass from Dak Prescott to Fred Ross gave the Bulldogs their first lead. Prescott threw for a career-high 331 yards but also threw two interceptions. The Heisman favorite has thrown five of his seven picks in Mississippi State's last three games, as his passing ability is proving to be a weakness at times.
"Different guys stepped up and made plays when we needed plays to be made," Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen told reporters. "Our guys are finding ways to win."
The Bulldogs will get to take a break this week when FCS outfit UT Martin visits. Mullen's team closes with trips to Tuscaloosa and Oxford, with a home game against lowly Vanderbilt sandwiched in between. They already have three wins against then-Top 10 opponents on their slate but will undoubtedly be facing their toughest tests going forward.
Auburn's season-ending gauntlet began at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday, where an Ole Miss team determined to keep its playoff spot nearly held on on its home field. Laquon Treadwell made a 19-yard reception with under two minutes remaining and appeared to cross the plane of the end zone before video replay showed he fumbled the ball on an ugly tackle.
Officials, who called the play a touchdown on the field, reversed the call and awarded Auburn the football. The Tigers drained most of the remaining time off the clock, leaving Bo Wallace 26 seconds to go 51 yards. Treadwell suffered a dislocated ankle and broken leg on the tackle. He will miss the remainder of the season.
"This was a playoff game,'' Auburn linebacker Kris Frost told reporters. "But from here on in, every game is a playoff game. They just get bigger and bigger.''
The Tigers host a struggling Texas A&M team Saturday before beginning their preparations for trips to Georgia and Alabama. Nick Saban's Crimson Tide program, which lacks a signature win this season, will hope to blaze its path to a playoff berth and atone for 2013's loss in its regular-season finale.
For now, Alabama will have to worry about a trip to Baton Rouge, where a resurgent LSU awaits. The Tigers had a week off after handing Ole Miss its first loss of 2014, and there's nothing Les Miles would want to do more than knock Saban out of playoff contention. Alabama, yet to defeat a Top 20 opponent, finishes with three of them in its final four games.
While strength of schedule is a factor in preventing Alabama from being a playoff team at the moment, it controls its own destiny. Considering those closing weeks, there is a zero percent chance a one-loss Tide team is left out in the cold.
The same most certainly cannot be said for the Big Ten, which continues to lag behind other conferences. No. 8 Michigan State has the best chance of making the field and hosts Ohio State this week, but the committee is clearly not enamored with the conference's depth. The Buckeyes and Nebraska are trailing other Power Five one-loss teams, and even two-loss Ole Miss slotting in ahead of both.
The Big 12, meanwhile, has to have a more positive outlook. TCU's 31-30 comeback win over West Virginia leaves only one ranked team left on its schedule—No. 7 Kansas State this week. The winner of that game has an inside track at a playoff berth, with the Horned Frogs looking especially promising due to their shrug-worthy finish.
With six games pitting Top 25 opponents against one another, the picture should be even clearer seven days from now. Until then, let the debate begin. Again.
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