NCAA Football Rankings 2014: Week 16 Standings for College's Top 25 Teams

All eyes are on the selection committee with the conference championships wrapping up business end of the 2014 college football season. With Sunday's final College Football Playoff rankings, all of the debate will end regarding the top four teams in the country.

Dissenters argued that a playoff would rob some of the drama from the best regular season in American sports.

That view couldn't have been any more wrong, as 2014 has been thrilling from start to finish. And even after the final week before the rankings are unveiled, nobody knows for sure who will even be in the playoff.

Rank	Team
1	Alabama Crimson Tide
2	Oregon Ducks
3	Florida State Seminoles
4	Ohio State Buckeyes
5	Baylor Bears
6	TCU Horned Frogs
7	Michigan State Spartans
8	Mississippi State Bulldogs
9	Ole Miss Rebels
10	Georgia Bulldogs
11	UCLA Bruins
12	Kansas State Wildcats
13	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
14	Arizona Wildcats
15	Arizona State Sun Devils
16	Clemson Tigers
17	Auburn Tigers
18	Louisville Cardinals
19	Boise State Broncos
20	Missouri Tigers
21	Utah Utes
22	Wisconsin Badgers
23	LSU Tigers
24	USC Trojans
25	Minnesota Golden Gophers

Week 15 Recap

With all due respect to the other teams in the Top 25 discussion, this weekend was all about which teams positioned themselves for the inaugural College Football Playoff. Those listed around seventh and below will by and large go without mention.

All of the talk coming in centered on which four teams would distance themselves from the pack and blow away the selection committee.

Alabama, Oregon and Florida State should be considered locks by now. The Crimson Tide and Ducks won the two best conferences in college football and finished with one loss apiece. They're not going anywhere. While the Seminoles looked a little shaky against Georgia Tech, the committee can't ignore FSU's unblemished record.

As Jimbo Fisher said after the win over the Yellow Jackets, "There ain’t no decision to be made," per Pete Thamel of Sports Illustrated:

The question then becomes which of Ohio State, Baylor and TCU is the most deserving of the fourth spot in the playoff.

Let's break it down a bit and determine who should be ranked higher from the Big 12: the Horned Frogs or the Bears.

TCU has the better overall body of work, playing a tougher nonconference schedule. The Horned Frogs didn't hurt themselves, either, in a 55-3 win over Iowa State.

However, Baylor owns a victory over TCU from back in October. As CBSSports.com's Tom Fornelli notes, that win invalidates almost any argument listing the Horned Frogs ahead of the Bears:

"

I think TCU is better than Baylor. I don’t think my opinion should mean more than Baylor actually beating TCU does.

— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) December 3, 2014"

It would seem counterintuitive to argue that a playoff helps decide things on the field but then turn around and rank Baylor lower than TCU.

The selection committee also generally displayed the "What have you done for me lately?" attitude in past rankings. If that trend continues, Baylor's win over previously No. 9 Kansas State will carry more weight than TCU's win over the Cyclones.

The signs point to Baylor at the very least being ranked ahead of TCU. But you could just as easily see the committee placing the Horned Frogs ahead of the Bears. Since it's the first year, nobody really knows what to do.

For now, we'll eliminate TCU from the playoff hunt, leaving Baylor and Ohio State.

The Buckeyes shut out No. 13 Wisconsin, 59-0, and more impressively held Melvin Gordon to 76 yards rushing to win the Big Ten. In addition, OSU scored 59 points on the No. 4 scoring defense in the country with Cardale Jones at quarterback.

ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach made compelling arguments for why Ohio State should be in the top four:

The biggest red flag for the Buckeyes is a home loss to Virginia Tech, which finished 6-6 and lost 6-3 in overtime to Wake Forest. Ohio State fans will argue that it was early in the season and that J.T. Barrett was adjusting to the starting job.

While that's true, a loss is a loss, and losing to the Hokies is rather damning.

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby doesn't want to take sides in the battle between TCU and Baylor, but he's more than happy to throw the Buckeyes under the bus, per CBSSports.com's Jon Solomon:

"

Yeah, I'm nervous. I want the best outcome for the Big 12. But I also have a stake in the playoff and I have confidence in the people in the room to do what they think is best. I'll be able to sleep tonight because I believe TCU has a much better loss than Ohio State.

"

If the playoff is truly about putting the four best teams in, though, Ohio State should be ranked ahead of TCU and Baylor. The Buckeyes also brushed aside any doubt that they'd struggle without Barrett at the helm.

As if that's not enough to get OSU in, FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver argued that the selection committee might also be motivated to search for the cleanest option:

By selecting Ohio State, the committee would almost be passing the buck to the Big 12 as a cautionary tale in terms of honoring co-champions.

Bowlsby might not want to pick favorites now, but it could cost the conference big in the long run.