Florida State jumps to No. 4, Ohio State falls to No. 6 in penultimate CFP rankings – NCAA.com

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With the conference championships just around the corner, the College Football Playoff Committee is giving its final look at where teams stand before Selection Sunday on Dec. 3. In this week’s poll, Georgia retains the top spot, followed by Michigan, Washington and Florida State. Ohio State fell to No. 6 and joins Oregon at No. 5 as the top two teams.

Here is the full CFP survey:

The case for Florida State

Can the committee reject an undefeated ACC champion? Of course not. But if Florida State – against its first-string quarterback – loses to Louisville this weekend in Charlotte, its playoff contention would be all but shattered.

However, FSU’s win over its in-state rival last week showed how the Seminole defense can really step up to the plate. Leading by just three points (17-14) in the fourth quarter, FSU did not allow Florida QB Max Brown to move the chains and sacked him four times (17 yards lost) to completely abandon hope of a comeback. Although Tate Rodemaker is not a Heisman candidate, he holds his own well, completing an average of 52% of his passes in his two games as the starting QB. With a deep receiver core of Jaheim Bell, Johnny Wilson and Keon Coleman, as well as the speed of Trey Benson, this offense still presents a comprehensive case to be a threat against 10-2 Louisville.

This year’s series is reminiscent of FSU football a decade ago, when Heisman winner Jameis Winston led the undefeated Seminoles to their third national program title. Mike Norvell bound up the wounds left by the Willie Taggart era and Jimbo Fischer’s sudden retirement and fought through two losing seasons to restore the Seminoles to their former glory. With other one-loss teams – namely Texas and Alabama – racing to overtake FSU, the Noles have exactly 60 minutes to control their CFP fate this weekend.

Buckeyes came across

After a narrow 30-24 loss to Michigan last week, the Buckeyes fell four spots this week. The Pac-12 Championship could give Ohio State a spot ahead, but if Florida State, Texas and even Alabama win one of their respective conference championships, the Buckeyes will be pushed to the back burner in the CFP race. They’re not as battle-tested as they are some of these one-loss SEC teams.

❔ Questions Ohio State faces after falling to Michigan

2023 Power 5 Conference Championships

➡️ The full scoreboard can be found here

Kaitlyn Schmidt is a postgraduate intern at NCAA Digital and a 2023 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. She has received awards as a Stembler Scholar, a Furman-Bishop Medalist, and is a Hearst-nominated journalist. Her print work has also appeared in The Daily Tar Heel, UNC Media Hub and ACCSports.com. Schmidt specializes in basketball, football, field hockey and feature films and enjoys sharing the human side of sports as well as the latest trends in the NCAA.

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