Colorado State wide receiver Rashard Higgins, left, watching against Hawaii. He likely will be back in the lineup against New Mexico next weekend. Steve Stoner, Loveland Reporter-Herald)
This much we know: Colorado State is off this weekend and will remain 9-1. In the latest rankings, the Rams are 23rd (Associated Press), 25th (USA Today/coaches) and unranked (College Football Playoff).
The Rams’ opportunities to move up in (or into) the rankings depend on teams dropping, of course, and that likely means a team ranked 11th (give or take) or below losing to an unranked team, or losing so badly to a higher-ranked team, they appear to be worthy of falling.
So here are the games that seem to involve those possibilities.
The rankings listed are, in order, AP, USA Today/coaches, and CFP.
The teams in bold are those who potentially could drop below CSU in one or more of the rankings with a loss, or the right kind of loss.
I’m not saying that would happen. I’m saying it’s conceivable, under the right combination of circumstances. I’m not going to spell out the “right combination” in each instance and will let you imagine those scenarios:
— Ohio State (8, 7, 8) at Minnesota (–, –, 25).
— Auburn (9, 9, 9) at Georgia (16, 14, 15).
— Michigan State (12, 12, 12) at Maryland.
— Washington at Arizona (17, 18, 14).
— Nebraska (11, 11, 16) at Wisconsin (22, 22, 20).
— LSU (20, 20, 17) at Arkansas.
— Northwestern at Notre Dame (15, 16, 18).
— Utah (25, –, 23) at Stanford.
— Missouri at Texas A&M (–, –, 24).
— Clemson (18, 17, 19) at Georgia Tech (24, 23, 22).
— Virginia Tech at Duke (19, 19, 21).
— Rice at Marshall (21, 21, –).
— Oklahoma (–, 24, –) at Texas Tech.
Here’s my guess (and my track record is not great in such matters): On Sunday, CSU will move up two spots in each of the polls, to 21st in AP and 23rd in the USA Today/coaches polls, and remain on the outside (probably barely) in the CFP rankings next Tuesday.
In the CFP, the committee — rightly or wrongly — has been displaying even more of a preference for the “power five” leagues than the two polls.
Marshall is the only other team from those leagues in the AP and USA Today polls, and CSU’s move into the top 25 gave the non-power leagues two reps there.
But the CFP top 25 still has no teams from outside the power conferences.
The CFP comes into play because it will select its highest-ranked non-power league champion, even if it’s outside the top 25, for a berth in an “access” bowl.
CSU would have to get in and win the Mountain West championship game to be eligible for that, and it still could go 11-1 and not make that title game.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
