And just like that, another domino falls in college football… Until proven otherwise, the default assumption for every program is that they need to win all 12 games to make the CFP. With five conferences in the aptly named “Power 5” along with the inevitable claim that the second best team in the SEC is probably better than anyone in the ACC/Big 12/Pac 12, it's a dangerous game to think that a loss can be papered over with enough big wins. Sure, it's certainly not uncommon to see one-loss teams in the playoffs, but a bad mistake outside of the Conference Title game generally spells doom.
While Oklahoma's loss at Kansas doesnt exactly reek like UNC's truly impressive set of back to back losses against UVA and GT, it's hard to imagine that a team who wasnt even ranked in the top four can make up that ground with zero remaining regular season games against Top 25 opponents. Alas, the Big 12 may have lost all hope unless the CFP Committee has the chance to include Texas, something they would welcome with open arms.
So, as most see it, we're left with nine teams contending for four spots. For some, the key is to prove their worth and rise up, for others the goal is simply to avoid a death like the one we saw in Lawrence last weekend. Now time to dissect a new set of “things to know” and make sense of what Week 10 could bring.
Before diving into Dimers' college football predictions or this week's best college football bets, you should know it definitely pays to have more than one funded US Sportsbook account when betting on sports.