Michigan passes Michigan State, moves up to No. 6 in CFP rankings: 'Better team'
Michigan football has moved up to No. 6 in the College Football Playoff rankings, after slotting No. 7 last week.
Michigan blew out Indiana, 29-7, over the weekend, while division rival Michigan State fell at then-unranked Purdue, 40-29. Despite the Spartans holding the head-to-head advantage over the Wolverines, the College Football Playoff committee moved the Maize and Blue past MSU in Tuesday night’s rankings release. The Spartans sat at No. 3 in last week’s rankings.
“The committee certainly gave Michigan State the nod [last week],” Iowa athletic director and College Football Playoff committee chair Gary Banta said. “What’s different a week later? Michigan won; Michigan State lost. The discussion in the room went back and forth, but at the end of the day, we felt that Michigan was a better team and [should] be ranked ahead of Michigan State — for this week. We’ll see again next week.
With MSU being the only top team losing this past week, the Michigan-Michigan State debate was one of the top on the priority list for the committee.
“There’s no tally that’s shown across the room, but I can just tell you the debate on this topic lasted a long time. This pairing lasted a half an hour, maybe longer.”
Checking in ahead Michigan are No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Oregon, No. 4 Ohio State and No. 5 Cincinnati.
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Based on where the committee has placed the undefeated Bearcats (at No. 5), they can be viewed as a placeholder. It’s believed that they would be jumped by a one-loss Power Five conference team.
That leaves the door open for Michigan, which needs to win out and have Michigan State lose one more contest, to make the four-team playoff even without winning the Big Ten, but only if it wins its remaining games. The Wolverines have the seventh-toughest remaining schedule in the country, according to ESPN.com, and have games at Penn State this weekend, at Maryland the following week and against Ohio State to conclude the regular season.
Michigan is one of six Big Ten teams to make an appearance in this week’s rankings. The Wolverines are joined by the Buckeyes and Spartans, No. 18 Wisconsin, No. 19 Purdue and No. 20 Iowa. Michigan’s 38-17 win at Wisconsin Oct. 2 is looking better and better by the week, with the Badgers having won their last five contests.
Penn State and Michigan kick off at noon ET Saturday afternoon in Happy Valley. While the Nittany Lions are not ranked, winning in a tough road environment would likely impress the committee and help the Wolverines’ chances of moving up.
Here is a look at the entire top 25 released Tuesday evening.
College Football Playoff Rankings (Week 11)
- Georgia (9-0)
- Alabama (8-1)
- Oregon (8-1)
- Ohio State (8-1)
- Cincinnati (9-0)
- Michigan (8-1)
- Michigan State (8-1)
- Oklahoma (9-0)
- Notre Dame (8-1)
- Oklahoma State (8-1)
- Texas A&M (7-2)
- Wake Forest (8-1)
- Baylor (7-2)
- BYU (8-2)
- Ole Miss (7-2)
- NC State (7-2)
- Auburn (6-3)
- Wisconsin (6-3)
- Purdue (6-3)
- Iowa (7-2)
- Pittsburgh (7-2)
- San Diego State (8-1)
- UTSA (9-0)
- Utah (6-3)
- Arkansas (6-3)
