They are like BYU. They are clearly a strong team, but really haven’t beaten anyone. People that know football can look at their running game and DL and see they will be tough to beat. Their coach is well liked and connected which helps. So does their location. Put that same team in the same schedule and base them out of Las Cruces with Graham as coach and they would not have entered the poll until the 6 or 7th week. That’s the dirty part of this stuff. Meanwhile the school run by the head of the playoff committee suddenly vaults into the poll.
And Iowa isn't all that good TBH. So I've revised my B1G power rankings and really only Ohio State and Indiana are in the conversation. Everyone else is mediocre at best currently. Wisconsin could be really good but they have a crap ton of injuries at key positions that have made their offense really 1 dimensional. Indiana with Penix was a top 10 team. With Tuttle, not as much and not as dangerous but they are still solid. Iowa is the best of the rest along with Northwestern and everyone else in the conference is borderline mediocre but trending to not good.
SEC- Bama and Florida but one of them will lose the conference championship game. Still a proponent that if you don't win your conference championship, you don't get into the playoff...don't care how good you are or how fluky the loss was in the game. Waiting for all the Texas A&M fans clamoring to be included in the CFP after an inevitable Notre Dame/Clemson loss and a loss by Florida. Sorry A&M, if you can't beat Bama in the regular season to earn your chance for an SEC Championship, you don't deserve to be in the CFP.
Big XII- OU and Iowa State are good but not better than anyone in the top 10 right now. I trust Iowa State's defense more than I trust OU's defense. I also think Rattler can be rattled too. OU is not as dynamic or multiple on offense as they have been in the pass and Rattler makes a lot of FR mistakes forcing throws into tight windows.
PAC 10/12/14- this conference is a joke and should be dropped behind the AAC in the P5/P6 grouping.
ACC- Clemson and everyone else. Of course this year you have to include Notre Dame b/c of the COVID thing. The real dilemma for the CFP will be when Clemson beats Notre Dame in the ACC Championship game. I don't believe in doubling up from a conference if you can't win the conference championship game.
There's a legit path for Cincinnati to the CFP but it includes beating us twice...convincingly. And no one on here wants to see that happen.