SMQ: College Football Playoff hopefuls and strength of schedule

Around the top quartile: Auburn and Miami

On Saturday in Week 13, Auburn dealt Alabama its first defeat of the season to knock the Crimson Tide out of the No. 1 ranking. A day earlier, No. 2 Miami fell from the ranks of the unbeaten with a loss to 4-7 Pittsburgh on the road.

For Auburn, their losses have come against defending national champion Clemson by eight points and against 9-3 LSU by four points. Their other non-conference games came against Georgia Southern, Louisiana-Monroe, and FCS Mercer. That is a big reason why the Tigers’ strength of schedule fell outside the top 30 in the country.

Miami’s lone defeat to the Panthers was a 10-point stumble at the final hurdle before the ACC championship game. They opened the year against FCS Bethune-Cookman and had their second non-conference game against Louisiana-Monroe canceled by Hurricane Irma. But Mark Richt‘s team also played MAC West champion Toledo and independent powerhouse Notre Dame, securing big margins of victory in both contests.

What can we deduce about these two teams?

As a result, the Tigers and Hurricanes fell right around the break for the top quartile in terms of strength of schedule. The composite had Gus Malzahn’s team ranked 32nd among 130 FBS teams, while Miami’s schedule ranked 35th nationally.

Both are still plenty good enough to consider among the contenders for a College Football Playoff berth. If Auburn knocks off Georgia in the SEC championship in Atlanta, they are almost certainly going to make the semifinals. The same is true of Miami when they take on Clemson in Charlotte for the ACC championship.

Neither is a perfect team, but they are a couple of the most dangerous teams in the country. A