College Football Playoff 2015: Date, Start Time, TV Info for 5th Rankings Reveal
It's only taken about 13 weeks, but the 2015 College Football Playoff picture is finally crystallizing.
After a week of mostly chalk across the board in college football's biggest games, there's no reason to believe that we will see a seismic shift in the playoff rankings. However, there are still some intriguing storylines to keep an eye on as the College Football Playoff Selection Committee gives us a peek into their current hierarchy.
Here's a look at when and how you can catch the rankings' initial unveiling.
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Date: Tuesday, Dec. 1
Start Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Before diving into the storylines that will be important to watch, here's a look at where the committee saw the teams prior to Week 13's action. Overall, this batch of rankings should look fairly similar.
Who Will Be Ranked Higher: Stanford or Ohio State?
If conference championship weekend goes according to Hoyle, the Top Four is probably already in place.
Oklahoma would appear to have punched its ticket by locking up the Big 12 title. Alabama and Clemson could do the same with a conference championship, and the winner of the Iowa/Michigan State Big Ten title game would fill out the field.
Chaos could still ensue if Alabama loses to Florida or Clemson comes up short against North Carolina.
Chief among the teams rooting for that chaos would be Stanford and Ohio State.
That's because if you simply move the teams who lost last week down and moved the next-highest teams up, you'll find Ohio State and Stanford at No. 6 and No. 7, respectively.
With either Michigan State or Iowa set to fall due to a loss in the Big Ten title game, it stands to reason one of these two teams would be in with a Clemson or Alabama loss.
The question is: Which team will the committee favor?
Ohio State has one fewer loss. It went through its schedule with just one loss to Michigan State (a team that could very well make the playoff). Stanford has two. The Cardinal lost to a red-hot Oregon team and Northwestern to kick off the season.
However, Ohio State got in over Baylor last season on the premise that they were an undisputed conference champion with one more game to prove themselves. This year, those qualifications would be true of the Cardinal.
Then again, the Buckeyes once again ended their season with their strongest performance of the season:
The committee's rankings this week will give us one last glimpse into how they view both teams before Stanford gets its chance to win the conference.
What Will Committee Do with Oklahoma?
Last week Oklahoma made a big move up the rankings. The Sooners moved from No. 7 to No. 3 with a win over Baylor. Since then, Bob Stoops' team has clinched a Big 12 championship and defeated another ranked team in Oklahoma State 58-23.
At the time, committee chairman Jeff Long explained that the Sooners had atoned for their loss to Texas based on their current level of play and resume.
"They have performed at a high level since then," Long said, according to Ralph D. Russo of the Associated Press. "So they've overcome that loss with their play on the field and the success they've had and the wins they've accumulated, with now six wins over teams with .500 or better records."
By those metrics, Oklahoma might have a case to be ranked ahead of Alabama. The Sooners added a dominant win over another team ranked in the CFP Top 25, showing that they are playing at an extremely high level and have an impressive resume.
| Clemson | 12-0 | 2 | 36 | 6 |
| Alabama | 11-1 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Oklahoma | 11-1 | 3 | 27 | 1 |
| Iowa | 12-0 | 1 | 63 | 26 |
At the same time, the Iowa Hawkeyes joined the Clemson Tigers as only the second team in college football to finish its regular-season slate with an undefeated record. It isn't inconceivable that the committee gives them the bump over Oklahoma as the Sooners move back to No. 4.
Another thing to keep an eye on in terms of where the Sooners will wind up is geography. Here's a list of what the committee's responsibilities are, according to the official site:
- Rank the Top 25 teams and assign the Top Four to semifinal sites.
- Assign teams to New Year’s bowls.
- Create competitive matchups.
- Attempt to avoid rematches of regular-season games and repeat appearances in specific bowls.
- Consider geography.
That may mean making sure that the Sooners head to the Orange Bowl as part of the No. 1 vs. No. 4 matchup as opposed to the Cotton Bowl, some 190 miles down the road.
So after all the work the four teams put into making the playoff, proximity could wind up playing a major factor. If the College Football Playoff has taught us anything in its existence, it's that any one of myriad factors will be important.
What changes, if any, that take place within the Top Four will just be the most recent example of that.
Strength of schedule and Football Power Index rankings per ESPN.
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