KONA808 wrote:

What if Sparty isn’t anywhere near their ranking. Buckeye’s are destroying them right now.

MSU:  "Our goal is to go into the Horseshoe and make Oregon's win there look as good as we possibly can."  LOL.

This is, in my opinion, a great result for us.  It leaves two one-loss teams in the B1G, tOSU and UM, and they play each other.  Win out and at the most one of them is ahead of us.  And this really does make our win at tOSU look really, really good, which helps us if Cincy or OkSt win out to put pressure on the committee.  

Fact:  if Ohio State had played some ACC team rather than us, there'd be a huge debate as to whether Georgia or Ohio State should be #1.  But we beat them at their place.  That doesn't make them a worse team.  They are a great team and we beat them.

Jerry Palm still says there's a path for Oregon to the CFP.  I think he's pretty much right.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-playoff-bowl-predictions-paths-for-the-nine-remaining-contenders-with-one-spot-clinched/

Here's what he said about us:

"The Ducks will definitely finish behind Georgia, the Big 12 champion and probably Notre Dame. So, they would not only need to beat No. 17 Utah in the Pac-12 Championship Game but also require losses by Cincinnati and Michigan plus an Alabama blowout loss. All this while hoping that Iowa does not jump them as well, although I do not expect that would happen."

I suppose there's a chance to pass the B12 champion if it is Baylor in a close game and we blow out Utah as badly as they did to us.  We'd have avenged one of our losses, to Utah, and they'd have avenged one of theirs, to OkSt.  We'd both have a bad loss, ours at Stanford, theirs at TCU.  They had a nice home win against BYU, we had a much nicer road win at tOSU.  The main thing that dropped us so low is not that we lost at Utah but that we got hammered.  If we hammer them back, we might pass Baylor even if they win.  

I do think we'd pass Michigan if they lose.  Both teams beat tOSU but we did it on the road, and we'd be a conference champion and they wouldn't.  I agree with Palm that we need Alabama to lose badly to UGA to pass them.  

I am pretty sure we'd pass Cincy if they lose and we win.  I don't expect them to lose.  If they lose badly it would not only drop them well behind us but perhaps also hurt ND enough that we might pass them.  

I don't see any way we get there with a close win.  A close win won't put us past ND and I don't think it puts us past Alabama even if they win badly.  We need to win by at least 2 TDs and have a bunch of games go our way to have any chance of a playoff spot.  It was all there for us if we win at Utah.  It wouldn't be such a long shot if we'd actually competed and lost in a close game.  Now, we need to not only beat them soundly but have at least 2 other results go our way.

Of course, if we end up somehow making it into the playoffs, we'd almost certainly be the #4 seed, and end up playing Georgia in the first round.  I don't think it would go well.  
 

Jiffy Jeff wrote:

So you're saying there's a chance...

If UO picks up the game tonight and the conference title, all things considered the Rose Bowl most likely against Iowa would not be a terrible thing to build on for next season...

We'll get our shot at Georgia to start next year..I doubt we ever see, nor should we, a two loss team in the playoffs, unless they expand. Personally, I'm fine with the Rose Bowl.

Jiffy Jeff wrote:

So you're saying there's a chance...

If UO picks up the game tonight and the conference title, all things considered the Rose Bowl most likely against Iowa would not be a terrible thing to build on for next season...