Real Kato Blog: College Football 2018 Week 10 Playoff Picture

This is a new feature; I'll try to break down the conference standings and possible scenarios down the road. Not sure if I'll do this every week but I just wanted to sort some of this out in my own head.

Big Ten
Michigan controls its destiny in the Big Ten East. So does Ohio State, but if Ohio State loses to Michigan State this week, then it could render The Game moot.

In the West, Northwestern is in the driver's seat, and a win against Iowa this week would keep them there. But lose, and then they might find themselves in a three-way tie with Wisconsin and Purdue. However, Northwestern beat them both so it has the tiebreaker. I'm not sure how I feel about another slog of a game against NW in the Big Ten Championship.

ACC
Let's just pencil in Clemson in the Atlantic division, shall we?

In the Coastal, Pitt leads at 4-1, but still has potentially tough games against VT, Wake Forest, and Miami. A loss to VT could be particularly damaging, since VT is sitting with two conference losses and poised to take the division lead if they win out.

Big 12
Oklahoma and West Virginia lead the conference at 5-1, and their matchup at the end of the season could well be a de facto championship game. Both teams have to get by Oklahoma State, though.

Pac 12
In the North, Washington State leads at 5-1, but Washington is close behind at 5-2, so their final game against each other could determine the North winner. Washington State still has a couple of upsets to watch for against Arizona and Colorado, but they could drop one of those games and still beat Washington for the division title. Stanford and Oregon seem to be out of the picture with three losses.

In the South, there are four teams with three losses and two teams with four losses, so just about anything could happen. The four-loss teams (Colorado and UCLA) obviously have a tougher road. But say Colorado beats Utah and UCLA beats USC. Now say UCLA beats Arizona State but Arizona State beats Arizona. You could see all six teams in the South with four conference losses, and I'm not gonna even try to unravel the tiebreakers there. Chaos!

SEC
Yawn. Alabama and Georgia have already clinched their divisions.

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