I still don't understand how Bama is ahead of us. Or LSU, for that matter. Note all of LSU's significant wins are at home. We have a direct comparison game with them (FSU). One of their losses (plural) was a blowout like ours...except they were at home. Bama's losses (plural) were so close...but our wins are better. I have no beef with USC....they have a couple of good road wins and a very close road loss.
I believe a win over SCAR (likely a top 30 team) will propel us ahead of Bama next week. But not anyone else unless there's a loss.
I assume it's pretty close with the 4 teams below...not a big gap.
Clemson:
Ranked Wins- AT # 16 FSU, 25 Louisville Loss- AT # 15 Notre Dame (blowout loss) Other Notable wins (top 40) - NCSU, AT Wake Opponents Left: South Carolina, #17 UNC
Bama:
Ranked Wins- # 20 Ole Miss, AT #23 Texas Losses- AT # 5 LSU, AT # 10 Tennessee (close losses) Other Notable wins (top 40)- Miss. State Opponents Left: Auburn
USC:
Ranked Wins- AT # 18 UCLA, AT # 22 Oregon St. Loss- AT # 14 Utah (by 1 pt) Other Notable wins (top 40)- None Opponents Left: # 15 Notre Dame; Pac 12 Title Game vs Ranked Opponent
LSU:
Ranked Wins- # 7 Alabama, # 20 Ole Miss Losses- #16 FSU (close); #10 Tennessee (Blowout) Other Notable wins (top 40)- Miss. State, (maybe at Florida was notable, but really?) Opponents Left: at Texas A&M, # 1 Georgia
LSU is ahead of us for one reason only - so the committee can justify including them in the playoff if they beat Georgia. The committee cannot possibly stomach leaving out the SEC champ, even if they have TWO losses.
On Selection Sunday a 12-1 Clemson team will be behind 13-0 Ohio State and 13-0 Georgia and 13-0 TCU. A 12-1 Clemson team will be tied with 12-1 Southern Cal and ahead of 11-1 Michigan.
So Michigan is out at that point (no conference title).
The above is the likely for Ohio State and Georgia … best possible for the/we other three. Southern Cal is almost assured to find a loss and a TCU loss isn’t out of the question.
Anyway, I like a 12-1 Clemson teams chances of being a playoff team.
BTW, the last Clemson two wins have been impressive.