After knocking off Tennessee, Georgia has established itself as the #1 team in the nation. As the College Football Playoff selection committee met to announce their second week of rankings for the 2022 season, it seemed certain that Ohio State and Michigan would slide up to #2 and #3, and they did. The only real drama had to do with the fourth slot. Would a 9-0 TCU team that has very little left in terms of claiming strength of schedule get the nod, perhaps because of its membership in a rapidly declining Big 12? Or would Tennessee only slide three slots. Would Oregon get it after running off eight straight wins since that awful opener against Georgia? It turned out that the Horned Frogs got the nod from the committee, at least this week. TCU heads to Austin to take on #18 Texas this Saturday, so it will be interesting to see if the Horned Frogs can continue their streak of coming back to win against teams with multiple losses. Check out the latest AP Top 25 poll and other items that may influence your College Football betting choices.
NCAA News: College Football Top 25 and Betting Opportunities
#1 Georgia Bulldogs
#2 Ohio State Buckeyes
#3 Michigan Wolverines
#4 TCU Horned Frogs
#5 Tennessee Volunteers
#6 Oregon Ducks
#7 LSU Tigers
#8 USC Trojans
#9 Alabama Crimson Tide
#10 Clemson Tigers
#11 Ole Miss Rebels
#12 UCLA Bruins
#13 Utah Utes
#14 Penn State Nittany Lions
#15 North Carolina Tar Heels
#16 N.C. State Wolfpack
#17 Tulane Green Wave
#18 Texas Longhorns
#19 Kansas State Wildcats
#20 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
#21 Illinois Fighting Illini
#22 UCF Knights
#23 Florida State Seminoles
#24 Kentucky Wildcats
#25 Washington Huskies
Tennessee could still crash the final four, of course. Ohio State and Michigan will play (and one of them will lose), and Tennessee will almost certainly win out and finish 11-1. They finish with Missouri, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. What if Tennessee finishes 11-1 and Oregon finishes 12-1 as Pac-12 champions? They both lost to Georgia, and neither game was close. The SEC has had teams get to the playoff without even qualifying for the conference title game. This happened in 2017, when the Tide started 11-0 but lost to Auburn, and Auburn went to the SEC Championship. In 2016, Ohio State made it to the playoff without getting to the Big Ten title game. Tennessee has the #2 strength of schedule and #2 strength of record metric as calculated by ESPN. Its wins over Alabama and LSU are two of the best in the nation. The only time a one-loss SEC team has failed to make the playoff was in 2020, when Texas A&M was left at #5.
And what about TCU? It would only take one loss to send the Horned Frogs tumbling, as their non-conference schedule did not feature any significant wins, and the Big 12 is not any better as a whole than the AAC at this point. They do face Texas and Baylor on the road, and they host Iowa State, so let’s table this discussion for the time being.
LSU is the two-loss team with the highest ranking. They’re behind Tennessee because they lost big-time to the Volunteers. However, if they can win out and beat Georgia to win the SEC, it would be impossible to keep them out of the playoff. That could lead to three SEC teams in the playoff: a 12-1 Georgia team, LSU and an 11-1 Tennessee team that had beaten LSU by 27. If Utah can win the Pac-12 with two losses, and if the Big 12 has a two-loss champions, AND if Michigan beats Ohio State (or vice versa) by a big margin, then the SEC might get all three teams in. After all, the ACC isn’t particularly impressive this year either.
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