Getty Oklahoma is the favorite to claim the final College Football Playoff spot.
Oklahoma got their revenge over rival Texas on their way to a Big 12 title and are the favorites to make the College Football Playoff. The Sooners headed into championship weekend ranked No. 5, and No. 4 Georgia lost to Alabama giving the Bulldogs their second loss.
Oklahoma is likely competing with Ohio State for the final playoff spot. Notre Dame is ranked No. 3 showing the committee likely believes the Irish are one of the best four teams even without a conference title game.
The Sooners were ranked ahead of the Buckeyes and added another win against a ranked opponent to their resume. Even if Ohio State wins comfortably against Northwestern, it is unlikely going to be enough for them to jump Oklahoma after the Sooners win over the Longhorns.
Ohio State does have slightly better wins with victories over Michigan, Penn State and Michigan State. Oklahoma has wins over Iowa State, West Virginia, Army and Texas. The main difference is the losses. Ohio State lost to an unranked Purdue team by 29 points, while Oklahoma only has a narrow loss to Texas early in the season.
Oklahoma Is Projected to Play in the Cotton Bowl Against Alabama
While every committee member will have their own opinion on the comparison, it is hard to justify putting a team into the championship conversation that has such a bad loss as Ohio State’s blowout defeat to Purdue. Here was College Football Playoff chair Rob Mullens thoughts about the two teams from his weekly conference call prior to the conference championship games.
Taking the second question first. Both of them played TCU away from home. That’s
pretty consistent, I would say with comparable results. Very similar there. The first part of the question, again, you look at
Oklahoma, you see their only loss is to a ranked Texas team at a neutral site, impressive road wins against ranked West Virginia, ranked Ohio State. You line that up against Ohio State with a loss against Purdue, then obviously an incredibly impressive win
versus Michigan last week, then a quality road win over Penn State. That’s how you start to line it up.
Oklahoma is expected to play Alabama in the Cotton Bowl on December 29. There are two things to watch that have a chance to impact this projection. While Notre Dame is ranked No. 3, there is no guarantee the Irish will not drop to No. 4 after not playing in a conference title game.
Georgia narrowly lost to what most perceive as the best team in the country. There is some thought the Bulldogs have a chance to hold onto their No. 4 ranking, but this still seems unlikely.