The one thing to take from the results in week 13 is how bad Florida State looked again, but they remain the only undefeated team among the power five conferences, meriting their place among the top 4 that will make the playoffs, while Alabama, Oregon and Mississippi State had a very easy time navigating through weak opponents.
A lot of what happened in week 13 was about setting up a soft landing going into rivalry week. Alabama have to play Auburn, and both picked on FCS opponents, an SEC tradition. Mississippi State didn’t pick a weak opponent, they simply got one in the form of a 3-8 Vanderbilt team they had no problem shutting out. Oregon, who will play Oregon State to hopefully finish the regular season with just one loss, had no problem running all over Colorado, basically and FCS team these days.
But Florida State? They got a good defensive team in Boston College. Still, the Seminoles, the national champions and undefeated team that keeps coming back from difficult situations, managed to mess up this one, forced to win the game on a field goal with three seconds in the game. They never trailed in this game and finish their ACC tour at an 8-0 record, but they didn’t look even remotely impressive while doing it, and were probably lucky not to have their quarterback ejected from the game after he pushed one of the officials.
As for teams trying to claim a spot in the playoff? Ohio State took some time before they created some distance from Indiana, but clinched their division title and a place in the conference championship game. They now wait for either Wisconsin or Minnesota (a team they beat in week 12), who face each other in a head to head on the final week of the regular season, after both teams won very close games on the road against Iowa and Nebraska respectively.
Baylor were the only “important” team in the Big 12 to play, and just made Oklahoma State’s season look sadder, losing for a fifth straight time. Mike Gundy shouldn’t be on the hot seat, but there’s a chance that he doesn’t have too many fans among decision makers. A bad loss in Bedlam might actually create a chain reaction that leads to him leaving his job, although it’s a bit too soon to tell. Oklahoma, beating Kansas, haven’t been that impressive this season.
As for the most interesting division in the nation, the Pac-12 is ready for its final showdown. Utah (losing at home to Arizona, and badly) and USC (losing to UCLA again) are out of the picture, which leaves us with three: UCLA, playing a relatively comfortable home game against Stanford, who are only 4-4 in the conference this season; and the Arizona sisters, playing in Tucson. Right now, UCLA are the highest ranked team of the three.