The latest College Football Playoff rankings were released Tuesday night and they were filled with local teams, setting up some wild scenarios as the final week of the regular season approaches.<\/p>\n
Could there be upwards of five, or even six local teams in the playoff field if you include Oklahoma? With SMU, North Texas, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Texas Tech all in the mix, things could get quite busy during the CFP.<\/p>\n
Here are three takeaways from the latest CFP rankings.<\/p>\n
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By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n SMU, ACC avoid disaster scenario<\/p>\n SMU<\/a> made its first appearance in the CFP poll at No. 21 and the Mustangs control their own destiny. If SMU beats California this week and wins the ACC championship game the following week, the Mustangs are going back to the playoff.<\/p>\n SMU\u2019s appearance all the way up at 21 in the rankings is good news for the ACC as a whole as well. With Virginia, SMU, Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech all in the back end of the rankings, it appears the ACC has avoided its disaster scenario, barring 6-5 Duke somehow sneaking into the ACC title game via some messy tiebreakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Given the ACC\u2019s mighty struggles in nonconference play and lack of representation in the rankings in recent weeks, there was some thought both the American Conference champion and the Sun Belt\u2019s James Madison could be ranked higher than the ACC champion<\/a>, meaning the ACC\u2019s champion would miss the CFP entirely. Unless the Blue Devils somehow win the conference, that scenario seems to be off the table.<\/p>\n Still no love for UNT<\/p>\n On a day it was announced head coach Eric Morris is leaving Denton for Oklahoma State<\/a>, North Texas<\/a> got more tough news.<\/p>\n Despite moving up one spot to No. 21 in this week\u2019s AP Top 25<\/a>, the Mean Green still didn\u2019t appear in the committee\u2019s rankings. While that may irk the North Texas faithful, the Mean Green\u2019s path to the CFP is still pretty clear. If UNT beats Temple this week and then beats what will presumably be No. 24 Tulane in the conference championship game, the Mean Green are in good shape to be the Group of Five representative in the CFP if they win out.<\/p>\n It remains uncertain how the committee views UNT compared to the Sun Belt\u2019s James Madison, which holds a 10-1 record. However, the Mean Green would likely have a chance to pick up a ranked win over Tulane in the American Conference title game, while James Madison only faces the winner of Troy-Southern Miss in the Sun Belt title game. It seems likely UNT still controls its playoff destiny despite the murkiness surrounding the Mean Green and James Madison.<\/p>\n Texas\u2019 potential path<\/p>\n Are the Longhorns still in the mix if they pull off an upset of No. 3 Texas A&M<\/a> on Friday?<\/p>\n The No. 10 spot appears to be the cutline since the ACC champion and Group of Five representative likely won\u2019t be in the top 12. That\u2019s a lot of ground for No. 16 Texas<\/a> to make up in one week. Here\u2019s what Texas fans should be rooting for.<\/p>\n For starters, Texas needs the Big 12 to remain a one-bid league, so the Longhorns need their former conference bunkmates, No. 5 Texas Tech, to win the Big 12. Texas fans should also be rooting for other two-loss teams ahead of the Longhorns to fall in the final week. That would include LSU upsetting No. 8 Oklahoma<\/a>, Stanford shocking No. 9 Notre Dame, No. 10 Alabama losing to Auburn, No. 12 Miami falling to Pittsburgh, No. 14 Vanderbilt losing to No. 19 Tennessee and No. 15 Michigan losing to No. 1 Ohio State.<\/p>\n In summary, the Longhorns need tons of help beyond just upsetting an 11-0 A&M team, but a path exists.<\/p>\n Full rankingsRankTeamRecordPrevious ranking1Ohio State11-012Indiana11-023Texas A&M11-034Georgia10-145Texas Tech10-156Oregon10-177Ole Miss10-168Oklahoma9-289Notre Dame9-2910Alabama9-21011BYU10-11112Miami9-21313Utah9-21214Vanderbilt9-21415Michigan9-21816Texas8-31717USC8-31518Virginia9-21919Tennessee8-32020Arizona State8-32521SMU8-3NR22Pittsburgh8-3NR23Georgia Tech9-21624Tulane9-2NR25Arizona8-3NR<\/p>\n