College football rankings: Sooners should make the playoff - NewsOK.com

Let’s get right to the meat. It’s looking good for the Sooners.

Saturday went about as well as Oklahoma football could have wished. The Sooners beat Texas in a rousing Big 12 Championship Game that showed the conference doesn’t always resort to video-game football.

Lots of hard hitting. Some good defense. A relatively normal score, 39-27. Sixty-six points were scored in the Big 12 title game. The SEC behemoths totaled 63 in a classic (Alabama 35-28 over Georgia) and the Big Ten title game posted 69 (Ohio State 45, Northwestern 24). The Big 12 was right in the middle.

Meanwhile, Bama rallied to beat Georgia; a Georgia victory likely would have sucked up a spot that OU and Ohio State coveted. And Ohio State didn’t rout Northwestern in Indianapolis; it was 24-21 Buckeyes late in the third quarter.

So when the College Football Playoff committee announces its four-team field at 11 a.m. Oklahoma time, seems like OU is the best bet to garner the fourth spot, behind Alabama, Clemson and Notre Dame.

I’ve completed my final rankings, which are in theory what the selection committee does, except I don’t use any eye test. I go strictly by results. Who you played. How you did. Where you played. Going by that method, I like the Sooners’ chances. Could the eye test – and SEC politicking – lift a two-loss, non-champion Georgia into the field? Sure. I would be surprised, though.

Here are my rankings:

1. Alabama 13-0: The Crimson Tide jumps past Notre Dame with the neutral-field victory over Georgia. Not a great schedule – when your best of four non-conference games is Louisville, a readjustment is necessary – but Bama’s résumé ends up superb. Look at this way. Alabama’s final four games, not counting the exhibition against the Citadel. At LSU, Mississippi State, Auburn, Georgia in Atlanta. Those are some good wins.

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