The College Football Playoff Committee released their weekly rankings on Tuesday night, as the Clemson Tigers remained the nation’s top team for the fourth straight week.
The Tigers (11-0) meet in-state rival South Carolina on Saturday in Columbia to close their regular season, before preparing for a potential monster match-up in the ACC Championship against #14 North Carolina.
The Tar Heels (10-1) are up three spots in this week’s ranking after defeating Virginia Tech 30-27 in overtime last Saturday in Frank Beamer’s last home game as coach of the Hokies. North Carolina clinched the ACC Coastal Division with the victory, and will try to avoid overlooking NC State in the season finale this weekend before taking on #1 Clemson for the conference championship in two weeks. Although it is a long shot at this point due to the loss to a 3-8 South Carolina squad in the opener, as well as the scheduling of two FCS opponents, the Tar Heels could be very much in the discussion for one of the top four spots in the poll should they win out and have some teams in front of them in the poll lose.
The third-best team in the ACC, the Florida State Seminoles, moved up to #13 in the latest poll, sandwiching themselves between Clemson and North Carolina. Since the ‘Noles are unable to land in the conference championship game, they will conclude their regular season in a match-up with in-state rival, #12 Florida on Saturday. Should the Seminoles win that game on the road in Gainesville, they will position themselves with a great chance to play in one of the “New Year’s Six” Bowl Games to conclude their season. This is good news for Florida State fans because despite being left out of National Championship discussion in 2015, the ‘Noles will have an opportunity to end their season on a winning note in one of the more relevant bowl games outside of the National Semi-Finals.
With all of this being said, here’s the full poll, with ACC teams marked in bold:
CFP Top 25
1. Clemson
2. Alabama
3. Oklahoma
4. Iowa
5. Michigan State
6. Notre Dame
7. Baylor
8. Ohio State
9. Stanford
10. Michigan
11. Oklahoma State
12. Florida
13. Florida State
14. North Carolina
15. Navy
16. Northwestern
17. Oregon
18. Ole Miss
19. TCU
20. Washington State
21. Mississippi State
22. UCLA
23. Utah
24. Toledo
25. Temple
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @MikeMcDanielACC and check out InsideTheACC on Facebook and on Twitter @InsideTheACC.