Projected College Football Playoff Poll, Week 13

1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Notre Dame
4. Clemson
5. Florida
6. Oregon
7. Northwestern
8. Texas A&M
9. Miami (FL)
10. Georgia
11. Cincinnati
12. Indiana
13. Wisconsin
14. Iowa State
15. Oklahoma
16. BYU
17. North Carolina
18. USC
19. Auburn
20. Texas
21. Coastal Carolina
22. Washington
23. Tulsa
24. Louisiana
25. Marshall

Trying to figure this out is an impossible task. How will the committee compare a team like the USC Trojans, who won two games by the skin of their teeth before a more comfortable victory over Utah last night, against a Group of 5 powerhouse like Marshall or Coastal? Has the calculus changed in measuring a two-loss Power 5 program against an undefeated G5? Will the strength of schedule judgments anchor a bunch of G5 teams together at the bottom of the rankings, as they did last year?

Two years ago, undefeated UCF got to 8-0 in time for the second set of CFP rankings and couldn’t make any headway from where they started the week before, staying at #12, so I’d be shocked if the Bearcats were any lower than that. I do think they’re the class of the Group of 5 for right now, but they’re not out of the woods just yet.

The upside for the Mountain West is that whoever plays their way into the championship game will have definitely earned it and, as a result, should earn a longer look from the committee in the weeks to come:

Nevada's remaining schedule:
at Hawaii
vs Fresno
at San Jose State

Fresno remaining schedule:
vs SDSU, at Nevada, at New Mexico

SJSU remaining schedule:
at Boise, vs Nevada, vs Hawaii

Boise remaining schedule:
at Hawaii, vs SJSU, at UNLV, at Wyo

— Nathan Shoup (@ShoupNathan) November 22, 2020