Pitt moves up again in CFP rankings
Pitt continues to push its ceiling higher in the College Football Playoff rankings after the Panthers moved up one more spot this week.
In Tuesday night’s rankings release, Pitt is No. 17. The Panthers were No. 18 last week, and while only one team ranked in the ten spots ahead of them lost over the weekend, that team fell eight spots to No. 18, bumping Pitt up one.
Of course, the team that lost was fellow ACC squad Wake Forest, whose 48-27 defeat at Clemson caused the Deacons to plunge eight spots. That tied Oregon for the biggest drop of the week, as the Ducks also fell eight spots from No. 3 to No. 11 after their blowout loss at Utah.
Michigan State also had a significant drop from No. 7 to No. 12 following the Spartans’ big defeat at Ohio State.
With Wake Forest behind Pitt, the Panthers are now the highest-ranked ACC team in the CFP rankings. N.C. State held steady at No. 20 this week after a home win over Syracuse and Clemson moved into the rankings at No. 23 following its defeat of Wake Forest.
The SEC and Big Ten each have five teams in this week’s rankings, ahead of the ACC, which has four. The Big 12 has three this week; the Pac-12 and AAC have two each; the Mountain West and Conference USA have one each; and there are two independent teams in the rankings.
This weekend’s schedule of games features two matchups of ranked teams: No. 5 Michigan hosts No. 2 Ohio State and No. 7 Oklahoma State hosts No. 10 Oklahoma. Of the teams ranked immediately ahead of Pitt, No. 16 Iowa will play at Nebraska on Friday, No. 15 Texas A&M will play at LSU, No. 14 Wisconsin will play at Minnesota, No. 13 BYU will play at USC, No. 12 Michigan State will host Penn State and No. 11 Oregon will host Oregon State.
The Panthers might keep an eye on those games in the run-up to their 7:30 pm kickoff against Syracuse at the Carrier Dome Saturday night, but they’ll also be watching the scoreboard in the conference as Wake Forest, N.C. State and Clemson battle for the Atlantic Division title.
If Wake Forest wins at Boston College, the Deacons will clinch the division. If they lose and N.C. State beats North Carolina at home, the Wolfpack will win the division. And if both Wake Forest and N.C. State lose, Clemson gets the Atlantic and a spot in the ACC Championship Game.
N.C. State’s game with North Carolina kicks off Friday night at 7 pm and Wake Forest-Boston College is at noon on Saturday. Clemson plays at South Carolina in those two schools’ traditional end-of-season non-conference rivalry game on Saturday night.