College Football Playoff Rankings: Beware The Trojans

It was a wild weekend of college football, but thanks to late heroics by Michigan, Ohio State, and TCU it’s unlikely that the top four teams in the College Football Playoff rankings will change much. Georgia will almost certainly still be #1, and remains the clear favorite to win the national title according to DraftKings. Ohio State and Michigan will likely retain the second and third slots heading into their showdown this weekend, and TCU will continue to be #4 because they continue to be undefeated.

The real intrigue is in the fifth slot, where USC and LSU both have a reasonable claim to the slot. With Ohio State and Michigan squaring off in Columbus on Saturday there’s a good chance this week’s #5 slides into the bracket unless the Big Ten powers play some sort of triple overtime flash classic that makes it unseemly to drop either of them from the top four.

The Bayou Bengals are certainly the top two loss team, but I’d expect the Trojans’ 48-45 victory over UCLA to propel them to the five slot. As a one loss PAC-12 Championship participant the Trojans have a solid resume. If they beat a suddenly stout Notre Dame this weekend that resume won’t look worse.

For Brian Kelly’s squad the objective is pretty simple: survive a hapless Texas A&M this weekend and then beat the Georgia Bulldogs in Atlanta. If they do that they have a shot. Otherwise, it’s just been a surprisingly good season in Baton Rouge.

The CFP top 25 will be released this evening at 7:00, with television coverage on ESPN, or stream on WatchESPN or the ESPN app.

Go ‘Dawgs!!!