College Football Playoff: Final Projections, Who's in and Who's out?

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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We have our conference champions set. Now the committee will select the four representatives for the college football playoff during a four hour selection show on Sunday.

It seems like every year the selection process leaves fans clamoring for more playoff teams. This year will be no exception. No.2 Ohio State was idle this week and watched No. 7 Penn State win the Big Ten championship. No. 1 Alabama, No. 3 Clemson, and No. 4 Washington took care of business and won their respective conferences.

Now what? Does an 11-1 Ohio State, whose only loss was to conference champion Penn State, deserve to be in the playoff over 11-2 Penn State? Do either of those schools outrank a Washington team that got it’s best win this weekend against a good Colorado team with an injured starting quarterback?

Final Projections

(Each team’s rank last week is in parenthesis)

The committee set a precedent in 2014 by ousting then No. 3 TCU for conference champion Ohio State. In my opinion, it would bring more consistency to the ranking process if the committee were to leap frog the non-conference champion again this year.

Then there’s the quality argument. Ohio State is a good football team with wins over Oklahoma and Michigan. But Penn State isn’t just an also-ran. The Nittany Lions are the champions of the toughest conference in college football this year. Four of the top seven teams in last week’s college football playoff rankings were from the Big Ten. Penn State has victories Ohio State and Wisconsin, both teams in the top six.

Unless you’re Alabama you’re going to lose some games. Every member of the top 10 has a blemish – except for the Crimson Tide. The same Pittsburgh team that beat Penn State also beat Clemson. Washington got outclassed by a good USC team. What matters most (to me) is the team that is playing their best football in December that has already done enough to win their conference. Penn State fits that bill.

The selection show airs Sunday, December 4th at 11 am CT.