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Happy Thanksgiving week! Letâs break down last nightâs College Football Playoff rankings.
Rankings Review
The SECâs nightmare
Hereâs what the 12-team CFP bracket would look like if yesterdayâs new rankings were the final ones:
Whoâs in? The committee finally did SMU justice by taking the regular-season ACC champs â that should be a thing in football, shouldnât it? â off the bubble and giving them the No. 10 seed. The Mustangs are joined by Oregon and Georgia as the only Power 4 teams to have clinched spots in their conference title games before rivalry weekend.
Also new to the field this week is No. 12 seed Arizona State. The Sun Devils are ranked 16th, but earn a spot as the hypothetical fifth-highest-ranked conference champions. That means ASU would earn a seed over South Carolina, Ole Miss, Alabama and Clemson.
First one out? Clemson, which has quietly risen each week in the committeeâs rankings and comes in at No. 12 this week, is currently the first team out of the field. The Tigers donât necessarily control their fate for the ACC title â theyâll need Miami to lose at Syracuse this weekend â but they could strengthen their at-large case with a win against No. 15 South Carolina. No. 13 Alabama is the second team out.
Biggest talking point: Not only was the SEC bumped down to three representatives in the field after last weekâs chaos, but two of those teams (No. 8 seed Georgia and No. 9 seed Tennessee) could play a rematch in the first round! And the winner would get the second roundâs toughest matchup: top-seeded Oregon. Could we have an SEC-less semifinals? That sounds like Greg Sankeyâs nightmare.
Best hypothetical home matchup: No. 12 seed Arizona State at No. 5 seed Ohio State. What would the Sun Devils do ⊠without the sun? Arizona State and Ohio State have played twice before â once in 1980 in Columbus (a 38-21 Ohio State win) and a second time in the 1997 Rose Bowl (a 20-17 Ohio State win). And even though No. 11 seed Indiana is likely out of the running to host, we still have three of four home matchups in the Midwest. Bundle up!
3 Big Stories
Whether youâre traveling for Thanksgiving this week or spending time on the couch after the big meal, here are three stories from The Athletic Iâve enjoyed recently that you can use to pass the time.
1. Why isnât the Brian Kelly-LSU marriage working?
LSUâs last three head coaches all won national championships by the end of their fourth seasons. But as Brian Kelly approaches the end of Year 3, he looks further away than ever from the crown.
In hindsight, a staff clean-out two years removed from a national title looks more like an overcorrection than a fresh start. The culture isnât working either, as evidenced by the scuffles on the sidelines between Kelly and the players. Charles Turner, who arrived at LSU in 2019, said he hardly had any personal interactions in two seasons playing for Kelly: âJust, âHey, hi. How you doing?â That was really it.â Yikes.
At 7-4 with a regular-season finale against Oklahoma on deck, whatâs next for the Tigers?
2. Michiganâs big-time flip
Five-star QB Bryce Underwoodâs flipped commitment from LSU to Michigan last week only added to the Tigersâ dread.
Underwood is the No. 1 recruit in the 2025 class, per the 247Sports Composite, and will sign in December as Michiganâs highest-rated QB of the modern recruiting era. What sparked the Belleville, Mich., nativeâs change of heart?
This was NIL-driven, which proves Michigan has evolved from its reluctance toward player bidding wars under former coach Jim Harbaugh. Two program sources said Underwood could earn more than $10 million from multiyear NIL agreements during his time at Michigan. As Wolverines writer Austin Meek detailed, this changes everything for coach Sherrone Moore.
3. The rivalry trophy nobody knows about
For years, the culprit behind the 2013 breaking of Minnesota and Penn Stateâs rivalry trophy remained anonymous. The snapping of the trophy served as a funny memory to the Golden Gopher faithful and a harsh lesson about the flimsiness of the trophy, one even Penn State starting quarterback Drew Allar couldnât name last week, when the Nittany Lions claimed the Governorâs Victory Bell trophy in a one-score win against Minnesota last Saturday.
And before rivalry trophies get handed out in earnest this weekend, you have to read Audrey Snyderâs origin story behind college footballâs least-known prize.
Quick Snaps
On Monday, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham was asked about his future leading the Utes after a disappointing 2024 season. The 20-year coach left his return in the air, saying his decision would be âbased on whatâs best for the program, not whatâs best for me.â
In other coaching news, Mack Brown and UNC will part ways after this season. The Athletic reports that Tulane coach Jon Sumrall will get a âgood lookâ to be a possible replacement.
The 24-team FCS playoff bracket was revealed on Sunday, with Montana State grabbing the No. 1 overall seed. Check out the full bracket here.
Donât worry, 4-7 Northwestern, at least your new stadium is one year closer to being done. And for you, 1-10 Purdue, things can only go up from here. What do the Big Tenâs non-CFP contenders have to be thankful for this week?
The early signing period is just one week away. Why is it so early? And what happened to national letters of intent? Get caught up here before the busy recruiting week.
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(Top photo: Steve Limentani/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
