Week 15 Rankings

Your Top 25:

Rk	Δ	Team	Pts
1	0	Alabama	70.0

Alabama made it look easy against Mizzou, winning the SEC Championship 42-13. QB Blake Sims completed 85% of his pass attempts (an SEC Championship Game record) while the Bama defense forced four Missouri three and outs.

2

0

Ohio State

66.6

The Buckeyes dominated Wisconsin 59-0 in the Big Ten title game. Third-string QB Cardale Jones threw for 257 yards and three TDs; the OSU defense limited Wisconsin's RB Melvin Gordon to just 76 yards and forced four turnovers, including a Gordon fumble.

3

+2

TCU

60.5

TCU manhandled Iowa State, scoring 31 unanswered points in the third quarter to win 55-3. QB Trevone Boykin threw for 460 yards, and the Horned Frog offense accounted for 722 total yards.

4

+2

Baylor

59.8

Kansas State kept it close, but the Bears came down with a fourth-quarter interception to cap off a 38-27 win over the Wildcats.

5

+2

Mississippi State

58.4

The Bulldogs stayed home on Saturday, but a Crimson Tide win improves their strength of schedule. I'm not sure they deserved to leap over Oregon, though.

6	-3	Oregon	58.2
7	+2	Michigan State	56.9
8	0	Georgia Tech	53.1
9	+2	Georgia	52.4
10	0	Marshall	52.4
11	+1	Ole Miss	51.7
12	-8	Wisconsin	51.5
13	0	Florida State	51.4
14	+1	Auburn	48.4
15	-1	Oklahoma	45.6
16	+2	Georgia Southern	45.4
17	+3	LSU	44.8
18	-2	Boise State	44.3
19	0	Kansas State	42.4
20	+4	Clemson	41.9
21	+4	Louisville	41.9
22	+1	Nebraska	41.5
23	-6	Missouri	41.4
24	-2	UCLA	41.3
25	+2	Arkansas	38.9

See full rankings here.

Who goes to the playoff?

Alabama will remain the consensus #1 after winning the SEC; Oregon's 51-13 victory over Arizona in the Pac-12 Championship will be enough to keep the Ducks in (although it's apparently not enough to keep the Math from dropping them to #6); and the Committee cannot keep an undefeated Power Five team out, even if the Seminoles haven't exactly looked dominant this season. Short of the Committee deciding that, no, we're going to have a six-team playoff this season, that leaves one spot for three one-loss, Power Five teams.

TCU and Baylor are in an awkward sort of tie. The two teams split the Big XII title, and though Baylor beat TCU in the head-to-head, TCU has looked more dominant over the whole season, beating their conference opponents by an average of almost 23 points compared to Baylor's 16. (Note that, because of the structure of the Big XII, TCU and Baylor had the same conference opponents, with the obvious exception that nobody played themselves.) Neither team had a particularly demonstrative win on Saturday. TCU beat bottom-feeding Iowa State 55-3 in a game the Math expected them to win by 56; Baylor won a hard-fought match against Kansas State by 11, though the Math gave the Bears a 15.5-point line.

Compare that to Ohio State who came into the Big Ten title game with their first- and second-string QBs out with injuries and with both the Math and Vegas considering them 4-point underdogs. The Buckeyes responded with a 59-0 shutout of the Badgers. The OSU defense limited the 4th-best rushing offense in the country to just 71 rushing yards, while on the other side of the ball, their third-string QB Cardale Jones threw for 257 yards, three TDs, and no INTs. Given that the Bucks had the most dominant performance this Championship Week and that it allows the Committee to sidestep the question of whether TCU or Baylor is more deserving, the Buckeyes should get the final spot in the Playoff. 

Teams falling out of the Top 25: (31) Arizona lost to Oregon when it mattered most, losing the Pac-12 title game 51-13.

Teams worse than the average FCS team:

• (127) Eastern Michigan finished their season 2-10 last week, but changes to the SoS calculation drop them below the FCS this week.
• (128) SMU finally came up with a win this week against UConn, avoiding a winless season, enough to lift them to #128, but not enough to look better than an FCS team.
• (129) Georgia State's season also ended last week, and they remain sub-FCS.

Largest improvement in rank: +9 Northern Illinois easily bested Bowling Green to win the MAC crown for the third time in four years.

Largest drop in rank: -10 Arizona lost the Pac-12 title game to Oregon 51-13.

Conference Rankings

Conference	Average
SEC	39.11
Big XII	30.69
ACC	30.46
Big Ten	30.43
Pac-12	29.17
Independent	26.16
Mountain West	19.64
Conference USA	18.90
American	17.12
Sun Belt	16.10
MAC	13.73

Game to watch next week:

(41) Navy vs. (93) Army (3 PM EST, CBS) Navy has won the last twelve games in this series, and next week's matchup will likely be no different. Navy has won by an average of 4.5 points per game this season, while Army has lost by an average of 8 points per game against a weaker set of opponents, including a 6-point overtime loss to Yale. The Navy's official blog is wondering when they can start calling this the Navy-Army game.
Line: Navy by 22