Ohio State Needs Help from Wisconsin to Make Playoff

Larry Karls
Nov 27, 2016
1 min read

The 2016 College Football Playoff final standings is two weeks away. Although almost anything is possible heading into the conferences championship weekend, the playoff picture may not be as muddled as one might think. Michigan was the only loser among the top 11 teams heading into this weekend. Thus when the committee releases its standings on Tuesday, major changes are unlikely.

This weeks predicted Top 10:

Alabama

Ohio State

Clemson

Washington

Penn State

Wisconsin

Oklahoma

Colorado

Oklahoma State

Michigan

Alabama, Clemson, and Washington are all locks should they win their conference championship games. The fourth position is a lock for a team from the Big Ten, but this is where it gets tricky if you are a Buckeye fan. If Penn State wins the Big Ten title game, they will get the nod over the Buckeyes given the Nittany Lions will have both a championship and a head-to-head win over Ohio State. However, if Wisconsin wins the Big Ten Championship, then the Buckeyes get the playoff slot, based on their head-to-head win over the Badgers. The only way the Buckeyes get into the playoff with a Penn State Title win is if one or more of the other one loss teams loses their championship game next weekend, which in turn places both Penn State and Ohio State in the final four.

Like Ohio State, the only way Wisconsin makes the final four is with a win over Penn State and a Washington loss.

Oklahoma needs both Washington and Clemson to lose to have any chance of making the top four.

Our final predicted Top 10: