Only a handful of teams stand between Pitt and the College Football Playoff with just under a month remaining in the regular season.
SMU, Texas A&M, LSU, Ole Miss and Iowa State. That’s it. Pitt is in great shape at No. 18.
SMU is in control now. It seems likely that SMU and Miami are on course to play in the ACC championship game, but of course, there is still football to be played.
Alabama, ranked 11th, will play LSU this weekend in an elimination game between two two-loss programs. Texas A&M is a two-loss SEC program that doesn’t have any serious tests in the regular season. Ole Miss has a massive game against No. 3 Georgia this weekend — and a loss would give the Rebels a third loss.
Iowa State is coming off its first loss of the season and has one ranked matchup left this season.
The path is there.
Oregon, Ohio State and Georgia and Miami are an unsurprising top four. Texas, Penn State, Tennessee, Indiana, BYU, Notre Dame, Alabama and Boise State (the lone Group of Five representative) will be in the mix for the rest of the season. But not all of those teams will win out — if any.
Miami, SMU and Pitt (and maybe Clemson) are the legitimate Playoff threats from the ACC.
Pitt has its work to do, though, and needs help. Virginia (4-4, 2-3 ACC) and No. 23 Clemson (6-2, 5-1 ACC) at home, and No. 22 Louisville (6-3, 4-2 ACC) and Boston College (4-4, 1-3 ACC) on the road, in that order, to finish the season.
With the way the conference is currently set up, if the Panthers want a chance at an ACC championship berth, they probably can’t afford a loss. Miami and SMU are unbeaten in the conference, and Clemson has just one loss.
Pitt vs. Clemson in two weekends is likely a knockout game. Louisville, with two losses already, is likely out of the running, but the Cardinals are certainly talented enough to be a serious spoiler — or more. Those two games will be tough, and the Panthers can’t afford a slip-up against a “lesser” team.
It’s not an easy schedule, not with a couple of ranked matchups, but Pitt can prove that it belongs with a couple of ranked wins — the first of the season.
Pitt likely needs to go 4-0 for a chance at winning the ACC. I don’t know if that’s going to happen, especially if the Panthers are unable to rebound after a particularly bad loss against SMU. But Pitt has shown flashes offensively and defensively this season.
I still don’t think Pitt has put together a full, four-quarter performance from the offense and defense. If it all comes together, Pitt is a great football team. And the selection committee agrees.
CFP Chairman Warde Manuel, who is also the Director of Athletics at Michigan, detailed why the Panthers have earned more respect from the selection committee than the national voters.
“Well, seven wins to open the season, to start out with, including a win at Cincinnati and their win against Syracuse in a dominant fashion,” Manuel said. “Their first loss of the season was last week against No. 13 SMU. That freshman quarterback I think is Eli Holstein, has been impressive, throwing over 2,000 yards and 15 plus touchdowns. It’s just an impressive team that Pat Narduzzi has put together.
“We look forward to seeing how they play. But their opening run was really impressive to the committee, and even with the loss, the loss that they have is to No. 13 SMU.”
There may be a path forward, but the Panthers have to earn it on the field. It starts this weekend against Virginia, and it only gets tougher from there.
I can’t see us beating Clemson unless we can get the offense turned around in a big way. The defense carried us through a couple of wins, but that’s not sustainable and you saw that last week.
Clemson is very beatable this season especially at home but yes the offense needs to regain its momentum.