College Football

The third set of College Football Playoff rankings promised to hold some surprises after the teams ranked second, third and fourth a week ago lost over the weekend.

It wasn’t really so surprising.

Alabama (10-0) wasn’t going to move out of the top spot. Ohio State (9-1) was expected to jump up to No. 2 and did so after a second consecutive 62-3 rout of a Big Ten opponent.

But Michigan (9-1) did not fall out of third, despite a one-point loss to Iowa. Yet Clemson’s one-point loss to Pitt cost it a drop from second to fourth.

All of this leaves us hungering for the Nov. 26 meeting between Michigan and Ohio at Columbus. OSU plays a very poor Michigan State team (3-7) this Saturday and should roll right through East Lansing without stopping to breathe hard. Michigan is at home against Indiana (5-5). You can see where this is headed.

The Buckeyes have beaten the Wolverines four straight times and 11 of 12. Michigan hasn’t beaten OSU back to back since 1999-2000.

Washington, which was fourth last week, slipped back to sixth after losing to a hot Southern Cal team. Louisville moved up a spot despite only really playing one-quarter in an eventual blowout of Wake Forest.

These eyeballs haven’t seen the team that will beat Alabama. But the guess is that either OSU or Michigan will earn the chance to try.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman