College football week one had some games that will make a big impact on the playoff race, but so did Week 2. This week’s biggest winner is the Pac-12 as No. 12 Oregon beat No.3 Ohio State. For the Big Ten, No. 10 Iowa beat No. 9 Iowa State, so it saves the Big Ten’s chance to send a team to the playoffs. If Iowa lost against Iowa State, the Big Ten would be at a big disadvantage against the Pac-12 and Big 12 Conferences. 

Ohio State can still make it to the playoff if they defeat everyone else on their schedule. They are scheduled to play Penn State at home and Michigan on the road. Currently, Penn State is ranked the 10th and Michigan is ranked the 25th. Even after the loss against Oregon, Ohio State is still sitting at No. 9. This shows that Ohio State is far from done. 

The SEC conference is still dominating in the current rankings with Alabama at No. 1, Georgia No. 2, Texas A&M No. 7, Florida 11th, Ole Miss 17th, Arkansas 20th, and Auburn 22nd.  

Gerogia’s win over Clemson in week one will make it difficult for the College Playoff Committee to make a decision if Georgia is a one-loss runner up in SEC (only loss comes from the SEC champion, Alabama) and Clemson is a one-loss Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) champion.  

The committee has given more weight on head-to-head games, so it is difficult to tell what will happen. The ideal situation for Big 12, Pac-12, Big Ten, and ACC conferences is that there is only one strong SEC champion, and the runner up has two losses. However, it is very difficult to imagine that either Alabama or Georgia will have two losses. 

Currently, ESPN projects Alabama, Georgia, Oregon, and Oklahoma as their favorites for the top four spots in the playoff. It is still early in the season, but Clemson’s loss against Georgia and Ohio State’s loss against Oregon caused some concerns for both ACC and Big Ten conferences.