With the 12-team College Football Playoff format, we now get several “playoff elimination” games throughout the regular season. Week 8 featured a number of these with many big time matchups, as the field of legitimate playoff contenders continues to shrink week by week. Some teams rose to the occasion and kept their hopes alive, while others came out on the wrong end and had their playoff aspirations all but extinguished. Here are four teams that were eliminated from College Football Playoff contention in Week 8.
It looks like another disappointing season for Brian Kelly as LSU fell at Vanderbilt on Saturday. In the year that the Tigers finally figured things out and improved their defense, the offense has been a major letdown. While playing in the SEC helps, as you still have a strong chance to make the playoff with two losses, winning out seems very unlikely for the Tigers with remaining games against Texas A&M, Alabama, and Oklahoma.
Utah suffered its second loss of the season and their third straight in the Holy War against BYU. While both of their losses have come against top-15 opponents, Utah has looked far from a playoff-caliber team on the field in these big games. It also doesn’t help being a team in the Big 12 which does not get as much respect as other conferences. The automatic bid as Big 12 champion is still technically a possibility, and last year’s title game featured two teams with two conference losses, but at this point, that looks like a longshot for the Utes.
Coming off a big win over Michigan, the Trojans were competitive for most of the game against Notre Dame but big late-game mistakes cost them. With USC’s second loss, it’s now an uphill battle for the Big Ten to get a fourth team in the field. After three straight playoff appearances at Oklahoma, Lincoln Riley is still looking for his first trip to the playoff with USC and that loss earlier in the year to Illinois on a game-winning field goal will likely come back to haunt him at this season’s end.
The Huskies were looking to establish themselves at the top in the second tier of the Big Ten, but they fell flat in a 24-7 loss to Michigan. Demond Williams Jr. threw two costly second-half interceptions on back-to-back possessions that helped Michigan take control and keep their playoff hopes somewhat alive. It is worth noting that both USC and Washington still have Oregon left on the schedule, and if either of them can knock off the Ducks while handling business along the way, we could see a major revival of their playoff chances.