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B1G talk: ESPN analyst give their thoughts on how a B1G team could make the top-4 in the CFP rankings
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College football got a little more hectic on Tuesday as the first official College Football Playoff rankings of the year were released.
Since the college football season has provided a lot of drama, any of the top-8 teams could make a case to be ranked in the top-4. However, the playoff committee doesn’t believe any B1G team has made a worthy case to be the top-4 as of right now.
The top-4 consisted of No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Notre Dame, and No. 4 Clemson. The highest B1G team was the Ohio State Buckeyes at No. 6 with the Penn State Nittany Lions and Wisconsin Badgers close behind at No. 7 and No. 9 respectively.
Obviously, as the season progresses, there a lot of outcomes in which either of these three teams could make the playoffs. However, the conference seems to have the most controversy out of all the Power 5 conferences.
How can Penn State claim a playoff spot after losing to Ohio State? What can Ohio State do to hurdle Oklahoma after suffering a loss to the Sooners in Week 2. And what about Wisconsin. The Badgers are undefeated, so how can they move up?
The conversation started when Wisconsin appeared at No. 9. Kirk Herbstreit was pleased with the Badgers ranking because he believes that they haven’t played anyone yet, which everyone else on the show agreed with. However, since they all think Wisconsin hasn’t played anybody, they pondered how it can get a playoff worthy win this season.
Joey Galloway believes that the Badgers may not get a playoff worthy win because the Michigan Wolverines are not the team we thought they were entering this season:
Michigan is hurting Wisconsin. They aren’t the Michigan team that everyone thought they were going to be. Wisconsin won’t have a good Michigan team on its schedule like they thought they would.
So Rece Davis believes that Wisconsin may have to wait for the B1G Championship to make a strong case to be in the top-4:
Wisconsin may have to wait for the B1G championship.
Now when it came to Ohio State, everyone believed that the Buckeyes could easily move up in the rankings as the season goes on. In fact, Jesse Palmer believes that Ohio State should be in front of Oklahoma, the team the Buckeyes loss to in Week 2.
Palmer thinks the Buckeyes would easily win a rematch against the crimson and cream:
If Ohio State played Oklahoma right now in Norman, Ohio State would win by 14.
However, the question after this week is how can Penn State contend for the playoffs after suffering a one point defeat this past Saturday. Herbstreit recommends the Nittany Lions need to dominant their remaining opponents:
Penn State doesn’t have that non-conference win. It doesn’t have that trump card like Ohio State had last year in the Oklahoma win. Best thing they can do is blow people out. Really only hope at this point.
Of the 12 teams placed into the top four of the initial rankings in the last three years, only five made the Playoff in that given year.
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) October 31, 2017
Now, if you are a fan one of these three teams, there is no need to sweat about the original rankings. Like Eleven Warriors pointed out in the above tweet, only five out of the 12 teams placed into the top-4 of the initial rankings the last three years have only made the playoffs that given year. So there is still time for a B1G team to make the top-4 at the end of the season.