College Football

Updating the College Football Playoff impact tracker as Week 3’s top-25 final scores roll in

Let’s keep track of the games on the Week 3 schedule that matter most: those involving Top 25 teams.

Updated Sep 17, 2017, 6:15 AM UTC

Below, let’s look at Week 3’s ranked games in a way similar to the College Football Playoff committee’s perspective.

For the committee, it’s not about what you did last week. It’s about what your entire schedule did all year long. Beating a team in Week 3 that finishes .500-plus is better than beating a team that doesn’t, no matter where either team is ranked at kickoff. The same goes for a team that finishes in the Playoff’s Top 25.

Committee rankings won’t be out until Oct. 31, so we’ll stick with AP Poll rankings for now. We’ll have time for in-depth notes on things teams did well later on. This post is only about how these results are likely to impact the Playoff picture.

Week 3 Top 25 college football final scores

Top 25 results will be added in this section as they arrive.

Will probably matter!

No. 3 Clemson 47, No. 14 Louisville 21: Road blowout over a team likely to otherwise go 8-3 or better, and there’s a decent case Clemson should be No. 1 right now.
Mississippi State 37, No. 12 LSU 7: Is ... MSU the SEC’s second best team?
No. 24 Florida 26, No. 23 Tennessee 20: UF is now UGA’s primary SEC East challenger for now and adds a win over a team likely to finish 8-4 or better.

Likely to matter at least a little

No. 1 Alabama 41, Colorado State 23: This should be a decent resume win, and CSU could still challenge for the MWC title.
No. 4 USC 27, Texas 24 (OT): Texas should still be projected to make a bowl, so this should hold up fine, even if it was probably closer than a Playoff team should’ve let it be.
No. 8 Ohio State 38, Army 7: Army has a good shot at a bowl, so this should matter a little.
No. 10 Wisconsin 40, BYU 6: This looked like it’d be a great road win, but BYU’s off to a horrible start. The Cougars are already 1-3, have more tough games to go, and could soon have to win six in a row in order to hit .500.
Vanderbilt 14, No. 18 Kansas State 7: Hey, um, Vandy’s 3-0 and gains a solid-to-good win.
“No. 33” San Diego State 20, Stanford 17: Potential MWC champ SDSU was “also receiving votes” after beating Arizona State, but now has a much more promising Pac-12 win on its resume.
No. 20 TCU 56, SMU 36: Has a good chance to stand as a blowout win over a bowl team.
Memphis 48, No. 25 UCLA 45: The Tigers should be considered the mid-major New Year’s bowl favorite, for now. A conference title and a solid overall record by the Bruins would be hard to top.
“No. 30” Oregon 49, Wyoming 13: Should finish as a quality road win.

Probably won’t matter much

No. 2 Oklahoma 56, Tulane 14: Unlikely to matter much, as Tulane’s projected to finish about 5-7.
No. 5 Penn State 56, Georgia State 0: GSU is very bad, but this is what a good team should do to very bad teams.
No. 6 Washington 48, Fresno State 16: Fresno’s improved over last year, but this should still be an inconsequential blowout.
No. 7 Michigan 29, Air Force 13: AF does have a decent shot at a bowl, which would make this somewhat noticeable by the committee.
No. 9 Oklahoma State 59, Pitt 21: Pitt’s bowl chances are wobbly, but a road Power 5 demolition like this can still catch the committee’s eye.
No. 13 Georgia 42, Samford 14: FCS game. Won’t matter.
No. 15 Auburn 24, Mercer 10: FCS game. Won’t matter.
No. 16 Virginia Tech 64, East Carolina 17: ECU looked terrible in Weeks 1 and 2. This is unlikely to add much to VT’s resume.
No. 22 USF 47, Illinois 23: Illinois seems to have improved somewhat, but this won’t likely matter, unless the Illini crack .500 by the end.
No. 21 Washington State 52, Oregon State 23: Early in the season, OSU disappointed against already-low expectations. It’s this matters at all.
“No. 26” Utah 54, San Jose State 16: SJSU’s unlikely to finish as a quality opponent.
Kentucky 23, “No. 27” South Carolina 13: UK’s now very likely to make a bowl. SC, though? Let’s wait and see.
“No. 32” Notre Dame 49, Boston College, 20: BC is bad. The committee won’t care much.