It’s hard to believe there are only three weeks left in the 2017 college football regular season. That said, there’s still so much left to work out on the road to the College Football Playoff, including in Week 11 when there are three top-10 battles.
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The SEC seems to be in the driver’s seat at the moment. It’s a foregone conclusion at this point that the SEC will once again be represented by its champion in the College Football Playoff. But with Georgia and Alabama ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in America, is it possible that the most powerful conference in America could become the first conference to have two representatives in the playoff?
There’s still a lot of work for the Tide and Dawgs to do to get to the SEC Championship Game undefeated, but if that’s the way this plays out, it’ll be really hard for the Selection Committee to justify leaving either team out of the fold. In fact, if both teams win this week against Auburn and Mississippi State respectively as they’re both favored to do, it’ll be really tough for either team to be left out. Alabama could still get into the top-4 with a loss against Auburn in the Iron Bowl if it beats a 12-0 Georgia team, and the Dawgs would be hard-pressed to fall from No. 1 to outside of the top-4 due to a loss to the Crimson Tide in Atlanta.
Let’s also not forget that Auburn could play its way into the College Football Playoff by winning out. It’s going to take the Tigers beating Georgia twice and Alabama, a feat that feels impossible at the moment. Even Mississippi State could stake a claim to a playoff spot by beating Alabama this weekend and winning out.
BookMaker.eu has released the SEC at -260 to place any two teams into the College Football Playoff.
Alongside the SEC prop, BookMaker has weighed in on the Big Ten and its chances of having a team in the College Football Playoff, lining it at +130 to be represented in the last four.
Week 10 was a disaster for the Big Ten. Penn State was beaten by Michigan State in a wild game in East Lansing while Ohio State was dumped by 31 points at Kinnick Stadium by Iowa.
Both teams fell seven spots from the initial rankings to the ones after Week 10, and the path back to the College Football Playoff seems impossible for both.
Ohio State still has a shot to get the job done if it can win out, including a win this week over Michigan State. But even with victories over Michigan State, Penn State and Wisconsin, the Buckeyes would still have two losses and would presumably need Oklahoma to lose twice to hop over the team with the inside track in the Big XII to the playoff.
The Big Ten’s best shot is Wisconsin. There’s a decent chance the Badgers will only have one game against a Top 25 team on their schedule, that coming in the Big Ten Championship Game. Wisconsin could conceivably go 13-0 and get left out of the College Football Playoff. As unlikely as that scenario seems, if Alabama and Georgia both head to the SEC Championship Game undefeated and all three of Notre Dame, Clemson and Oklahoma win out, it will be hard to justify putting the Badgers in the CFP.
Will a Big Ten team qualify for the CFP?
Yes +130
No -160
Will the SEC qualify two teams for the CFP?
Yes -260
No +200
Will a two-loss team qualify for the CFP?
Yes +300
No -400
Will a team outside of the Power 5 conference qualify for the CFP (excluding Notre Dame)?
Yes +2000
No -15000
(Odds Courtesy of BookMaker.eu)
