College Football

Updating the College Football Playoff impact tracker as Week 4’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 24, 2017, 6:23 AM UTC

Below, let’s look at Week 4’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 this week. It’s about what your entire schedule did all year long. Beating a team in Week 4 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 fun stuff and gameplay analysis elsewhere and later on. This post is only about how these results are likely to impact the Playoff picture.

Week 4 Top 25 college football final scores

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

Definitely matters!

No. 11 Georgia 31, No. 17 Mississippi State 3: In the SEC’s second-best shape, for whatever that’s worth.
No. 16 TCU 44, No. 6 Oklahoma State 31: The Frogs are now in the Big 12’s second-best long-term shape.

Likely to matter some!

No. 1 Alabama 59, Vanderbilt 0: Vandy should’ve entered this week in the AP’s top 25. But the long haul matters more; this is likely to count as a road obliteration of a solid bowl team.
No. 4 Penn State 21, Iowa 19: Should stand up as a road win over a decent bowl team.
No. 5 USC 30, Cal 20: Against all preseason odds, this has a good chance of being a quality road win.
No. 7 Washington 37, “No. 27” Colorado 10: This could be a road win over a seven-win team.
No. 8 Michigan 28, Purdue 10: Raise your hand if you expected this to be a potential quality road win. The rapidly improving Boilermakers have a solid shot at a bowl.
NC State 27, No. 12 Florida State 21: The Noles are now 0-2, and the ACC Atlantic is looking wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide open for Clemson.
No. 13 Virginia Tech 38, Old Dominion 0: ODU’s projected to reach six wins.
No. 14 Miami 52, Toledo 30: Miami’s second game of 2017 (due to Hurricane Irma) is a win over a potential 10-game winner and conference champion.
No. 20 Florida 28, Kentucky 27: The Life Championship was on the line, but the Gators also end up with a win over a likely bowl team.
UCF 38, “No. 28” Maryland 10: UCF is still undefeated (at an Irma-altered 2-0) and adds a likely quality W.
“No. 30” Notre Dame 38, Michigan State 18: A strong start has MSU in shape to return to the postseason, so ND should have a quality W here.

Probably won’t matter much.

No. 2 Clemson 34, Boston College 7
No. 3 Oklahoma 49, Baylor 41: This is unlikely to count as a good W, but OU’s struggles here could raise the committee’s eyebrows.
No. 10 Ohio State 54, UNLV 21
No. 15 Auburn 51, Missouri 14
No. 18 Washington State 45, Nevada 7
No. 19 Louisville 42, Kent State 3
No. 21 USF 43, Temple 7: USF’s weak-looking schedule really needed Temple to be a quality opponent, but the Owls have looked rough so far.
No. 22 San Diego State 28, Air Force 24: AF isn’t far from a bowl run, so SDSU still might’ve gained some ground on New Year’s Six rivals USF and Memphis.
No. 23 Utah 30, Arizona 24: Arizona’s looked a little better than we feared, but .500 still seems unlikely.
Arizona State 37, No. 24 Oregon 35
No. 25 LSU 35, Syracuse 26
“No. 26” West Virginia 56, Kansas 34
“No. 31” Memphis 44, SIU 31: FCS game, so this win can’t really help, and uh ... a NY6 contender should win by more here.