College Football Playoff Race Puts 3 Traditional Powerhouses Under Pressure After Week 7

Tough results could spell Playoff doom for a trio of powers.

Texas and Steve Sarkisian have a brutal path to the Col;lege Football Playoff after Week 7. (Scott Wachter-Imagn Images) | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Seven was not a lucky number for a trio of college football powers. Entering Week 7, these powers were all in good shape in the race for College Football Playoff position. While a bigger CFP field is coming, for the moment, there are 12 teams involved, and the conference champs from the top four leagues and a G5 champion are already certain. That leaves only seven spots left, and the race to be part of that seven got much tigheter for the trio of unfortunate powers.

Notre Dame

Notre Dame took a tough loss to BYU in Week7. The 28-24 defeat ended with a seemingly missed pass interference call and a second seemingly remaining on the clock. While Notre Dame was No. 2 and only fell to No. 4 in the AP poll, the issue for the Irish is a lack of opportunities to boost their stock.

Notre Dame faces No. 1 Miami on November 7th, and with No. 23 SMU lurking at the back end of the schedule, Notre Dame can't afford to stumble in any off-the-radar games or they could fall out of the CFP top 12.

Alabama

For Alabama, the issue wasn't a single loss. A 26-10 beatdown to Tennessee is a second consecutive defeat for the Tide. A season ago, Alabama snuck into the final spot in the CFP with a 9-3 mark. But it was that close. And with a second loss ESPN's FPI ratings have the Tide below a 50% chance at making the Playoff.

Alabama still has to face LSU on November 7th and does have a few other dangerous games, including the Iron Bowl battle with an Auburn team that just upset No. 1 Georgia. It's far from sure that 9-3 would be good enough to get Alabama back in the Playoff again.

Texas

Texas is in even toughest shape than Alabama. A second consecutive loss for the Longhorns came to Florida after the previous week's loss to Oklahoma. Texas is down to No. 19 now, and with a battle with No. 7 Ole Miss coming this week, Texas may immediately take a third loss which figures to be more or less disqualifying.

The Longhorns, even if they survive this week, would still have to play ranked Missouri and LSU teams ahead. The Longhorns have just a 41% CFP spot per FPI, which places the Longhorns behind not only Georgia and Alabama, but also Tennessee and Ole Miss in the SEC pecking order.