Ask Farrell: Is it a 6-team race for CFB Playoff?
After a few weeks of college football are now in the books, it’s clear that some teams are on a path to the College Football Playoff and others are not.
There is also a lot of talk that there might only be six teams that are on their way to duking it out to play in college football’s version of the Final Four and those programs are Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma and Ohio State.
Clemson went to Syracuse after losing to the Orange and struggling against them in the last two meetings and clobbered coach Dino Babers’ team, 41-6. Alabama cruised by South Carolina, 47-23.
Georgia continued to impress in a 55-0 win over Arkansas State on Saturday and is now preparing for its biggest challenge yet when Notre Dame visits this weekend.
LSU’s offense could be real as the Tigers clobbered Northwestern State, 65-14, one week after going to Texas and being the Longhorns in their place.
Oklahoma came to the Rose Bowl and blew out a woeful UCLA team, 48-14, in a game that felt like the Sooners could say and do whatever they wanted against the Bruins.
And Ohio State - after struggling against Indiana over the years - went to Bloomington and laid the boom, 51-10.
MORE ASK FARRELL: Can Kirby Smart pull off another No. 1 class at UGA?
Those six teams seem to be ahead of others at this point in the season but they might not be the only ones with a legitimate shot at the playoff race.
Notre Dame is undefeated, got there last season and could make a huge statement in Athens this weekend. Auburn, Florida and Michigan round out the top 10. Utah is undefeated and has a really tough defense. Penn State and Wisconsin have also not been beaten. UCF looked like one of the best offenses in the country in a blowout win over Stanford.
FARRELL'S TAKE
We ask Rivals National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell if he thinks this is a six-team race to the playoff or if he can make an argument for some others as the season really starts to heat up with some big matchups this weekend.
“I think there is a clear difference between the top six teams in the nation and everyone else, more of a gap than I’ve seen this early in a few years. I think Clemson, Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Georgia could all win the national title this year but I don’t see anyone else coming close.
"That doesn’t mean teams like Notre Dame and some others aren’t good, but I just don’t think they are at the level of the rest. Clemson and Alabama are the favorites to meet again for the national title, but watch out for Oklahoma and Ohio State especially as they have so many weapons it’s scary. Georgia will have to get past Alabama to win it all and LSU will have to do the same so you could make an argument that Alabama has the toughest road ahead and Clemson clearly has the easiest. But there’s a big drop off to me after the big six.”