Week 11 Top 25

RK	CFB Playoff Poll	AP Poll	Jeremy	Nick
1	Mississippi State	Mississippi State	Mississippi State	Mississippi State
2	Florida State	Florida State	Florida State	Florida State
3	Auburn	Auburn	Auburn	Auburn
4	Oregon	Alabama	Oregon	Oregon
5	Alabama	Oregon	Alabama	Alabama
6	TCU	TCU	TCU	TCU
7	Kansas State	Michigan State	Michigan State	Kansas State
8	Michigan State	Notre Dame	Kansas State	Notre Dame
9	Arizona State	Kansas State	Arizona State	Michigan State
10	Notre Dame	Baylor	Notre Dame	Baylor
11	Ole Miss	Arizona State	Baylor	Arizona State
12	Baylor	Ole Miss	Ole Miss	Ole Miss
13	Nebraska	Ohio State	Nebraska	LSU
14	Ohio State	LSU	Ohio State	Nebraska
15	Oklahoma	Nebraska	LSU	Ohio State
16	LSU	Oklahoma	Georgia	Clemson
17	Utah	Georgia	Clemson	Oklahoma
18	UCLA	UCLA	Oklahoma	Arizona
19	Arizona	Clemson	Arizona	Duke
20	Georgia	Utah	Duke	Utah
21	Clemson	Arizona	Utah	West Virginia
22	Duke	Duke	Marshall	Marshall
23	West Virginia	Marshall	West Virginia	UCLA
24	Georgia Tech	West Virginia	UCLA	Georgia
25	Wisconsin	Wisconsin	Missouri	Wisconsin

Final Four

The Final Four gets a bit of a shake up this week with Ole Miss’ loss to Auburn.  The Rebels drop all the way to No. 11 with the loss and effectively end their playoff hopes.  Oregon moves in to fill the No. 4 spot after their win over Stanford and might be the best lock to stay in the top four.  More changes will come in the following weeks as Alabama has yet to play No. 1 Mississippi State and No. 3 Auburn.

Bubble Watch

The SEC West

The SEC West currently has three teams in the top five of the CFB Playoff Poll.  There’s still a lot of fluctuation ahead for this division as Mississippi State and Auburn have yet to play Alabama.  The best scenario for the SEC might be if Mississippi State and Auburn both win out.  That would leave Alabama in the dust but is probably the only scenario where the SEC gets two teams in the playoff.

TCU/K-State

TCU and K-State sit at No. 6 and No. 7, respectively and both are in a good position to make a late run for the playoff.  Both teams have a loss and they face each other this weekend, so someone’s playoff dream is almost over.  However, the winner will surely move up a spot or two and would certainly jump a two-loss SEC West team.  After their match up this Saturday, TCU probably has the easier path ahead, finishing up at Kansas, Texas and home against Iowa State.  K-State finishes at West Virginia, Kansas and at Baylor.

Michigan State

The Spartans will need help to make the playoff.  They play only their third ranked opponent this weekend in No. 14 Ohio State and are 1-1 in their previous two (46-27 loss at Oregon and 27-22 win against Nebraska).  The problem MSU will face is the perception of the Big Ten conference and specifically the top conference opponents they’ll face.  A win over Ohio State won’t really help the Spartans as there’s little respect for the Buckeyes and would be more of an indictment on OSU.  Beyond OSU, the next big opportunity the Spartans will have would be in the Big Ten title game and unfortunately they best opponent they could face would be a one-loss Nebraska team, who they've already beaten.  If the Huskers don’t win the West, the other potential champs would be Minnesota, Iowa or Wisconsin.  This is a good Michigan State team, unfortunately due to the perception of their conference and the high-profile loss to Oregon, a playoff berth is a pipe dream.   

Moving Up

Oregon

The Ducks are in the perfect position at No. 4 in the Playoff Committee Poll going into week 11.  Oregon has a difficult road trip this weekend at Utah but the rest of the path is pretty clear.  They finish with Colorado and Oregon State, then whoever comes out of the South.  Plus, two of the teams ahead of them, Mississippi State and Auburn still have to play Alabama.  It’s almost certain that the Tide will win one or both games, further clearing the way for the Ducks.

Arizona State

I’m not really sold on ASU as a contender but looking ahead at their playoff path, there’s an outside chance (with a lot of help from the teams ahead of them) they could sneak their way in.  ASU is currently sitting at No. 9 in the CFB Playoff Poll and has wins over USC, Stanford, Washington and Utah and have some high-profile games coming up against current No. 10, Notre Dame and finish at No. 19 Arizona.  If the Sun Devils are able to win out and beat Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship, a playoff berth could be in the cards.