ESPN's Heather Dinich: 'Three humongous games' will shake up College Football Playoff rankings

The top eight teams in the College Football Playoff rankings remained unchanged this week, but don’t expect that to last, says ESPN analyst Heather Dinich.

The veteran ESPN college football reporter fully anticipates a shakeup this weekend.

“If anyone is sleeping on these rankings they need to wake up for Week 11, because they’re going to change,” Dinich said. “There are three humongous games.”

Two of the games will be between current top-10 teams in the College Football Playoff rankings. Dinich helped break down the importance of each on ESPN’s air on Tuesday night.

“Michigan at Penn State,” she said, “That can change the ranking because Michigan can get its first win against a top-10 team, the same top-10 team that Ohio State beat. That could catapult Michigan to maybe one or two.”

Currently the Wolverines rank No. 3 in the College Football Playoff rankings, with biggest knock on Michigan a pretty soft schedule to date. That’ll change in the final three weeks of the season, starting this weekend in Happy Valley.

Another top-10 matchup this weekend will be the Georgia–Ole Miss game, and Dinich will be tuned into that one for the possibility a real wild card emerges in the SEC.

“I love the Ole Miss at Georgia game, because consider this scenario: What if Ole Miss beats Georgia, runs the table, finishes 11-1 with a win against the SEC East champs?” she said. “I promise you the selection committee will at least consider those Rebels.”

That would certainly throw a real twist into the final few weeks of the season.

But the other more obvious game that could impact the College Football Playoff rankings is a Pac-12 matchup Dinich has her eyes on.

“Then finally Utah at Washington, that’s an extremely important game because even though as we sit here today Washington has the best win in the country against Oregon, and they just punctuated their resume further, it still hasn’t been enough,” she said. “A win against Utah might, especially if there’s some of that chaos ahead of them.”