If Temple takes care of business Saturday night and runs the table, we will definitely be in a NY6 bowl. But will it be enough to get us into the playoffs?
SOS says no, although we will have beaten at least 3, if not 4 top 25 teams, plus Cincy and PSU. I doubt we get in against any P-5 one loss team.
Let's look at the schedule:
#1 OSU could lose to both Mich. St. and Michigan. More likely, they could lose one.
#2 Baylor lost their QB and still must play Oklahoma, Ok. St., TCU, and Texas. They could lose at least two of them.
#3 Clemson has only to defeat Florida St. to go undefeated and should get it done, so they're in.
#4 LSU has to play Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas A&M. Bama could be their only loss going into the playoffs. If Bama wins, does the Championship playoff have both LSU and Bama with one loss each?
#5 TCU still must play Ok. St, Okla., and Baylor. That's quite a gauntlet at the end of the year. They could lose two of the three, but if they're undefeated, or possibly one loss, they're in.
#6 Michigan St. must beat Ohio St. End of story.
#7 Alabama must defeat LSU to have any chance, but don't rule out a loss to arch-rival Auburn
#8 Stanford must play neighbor, Cal, but also must daefeat Notre Dame to only have one loss.
#9 Notre Dame could lose to us and Stanford. Can't afford any more losses.
#10 Iowa is undefeated and likely to remain so. They didn't play Mich., Mich St. or Ohio St. If Mich. St. or Ohio St. is also undefeated, does the committee take both? SOS does not favor Iowa. They'd have to win the BIG 10 championship game to move on.
#11 Florida is likely to have only 1 loss going into the conf. championship if they can get by Fl. St. I don't think they can beat either LSU or Alabama, so they are out.
#12 Oklahoma St. still must play TCU, Baylor, and Okla. and will probably lose two of them.
#13 Utah just has to beat UCLA to finish the regular season with one loss, but I don't think they get by Stanford in the title game.
#14 Oklahoma had a "bad" loss to Texas and still must play Baylor, TCU, and Ok. St. They are out.
#16 Memphis must defeat Houston, Temple and Navy to remain undefeated and then would have to beat us again in the conference championship. I don't think they can do it.
#18 Houston won't play us until the championship game, but they must beat Navy and Memphis. I think Memphis is the better team.
So it appears that unless there are a slew of upsets, it will be OSU/Mich. St., Clemson, Alabama/LSU, and TCU in the National Championship. We should definitely be in a NY6 bowl. A great accomplishment considering we lost to Fordham and Idaho two years ago.