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CFP Top 25: Stanford is 7th, Utah is 10th, UCLA is 19th

Nov 10, 2015

Stanford, Utah and UCLA all moved up in the latest College Football Playoff Top 25, with the Cardinal jumping up to No. 7, Utah creeping up to No. 10 and UCLA climbing to No. 19. If the semifinals started today, No. 1 Clemson would play No. 4 Notre Dame, while No. 2 Alabama would play No. 3 Ohio State.

Stanford

A week after escaping the Palouse, the Cardinal put its foot down and curb-stomped Colorado 42-10 in Boulder behind a 220-yard all-purpose-yard effort by Christian McCaffrey, who now has his own 'McCaffrey for Heisman' page. Three teams above the Cardinal in last week’s poll lost –LSU, Michigan State and TCU – and Stanford was able to surpass them all along with Florida, which looked very pedestrian in an ugly 9-7 win over Vanderbilt. After a four-spot improvement in the CFP rankings, The Cardinal is in good shape to make the College Football Playoff if it wins out – new No. 4 Notre Dame and a likely-ranked Pac-12 South team for the Pac-12 Football Championship Game (assuming the Card wins one of its next two games) are still on the schedule, so Stanford has plenty of opportunities for résumé-building wins. First thing’s first, though; there’s a little team called Oregon coming to town Saturday afternoon, and the Ducks seem to have found their groove.

[Related: Latest Pac-12 football standings]

Utah

Welcome to the top 10, Utah. The Utes jumped two spots to No. 10 after a 34-23 win over Washington, notching its first win over the Huskies in program history thanks to a stabilizing fourth-quarter performance. Like the Cardinal, Utah should be playing in the Final Four if it wins out. There are two Big Ten, two Big 12 and two SEC teams ahead of the Utes at the moment (not to mention Stanford), meaning there are plenty of guaranteed losses for the teams currently ahead of Utah. Plus, that win over Michigan (now No. 14) continues to look really good. Also playing in the Utes’ favor is that they have just one road game remaining, and it’s this weekend against a struggling Arizona squad that has dropped three straight. If Utah can get past the Wildcats, then it has two at home against UCLA (résumé-strengthener) and Colorado (very winnable rivalry game) before a potential game in Santa Clara.

[Related: Buy your Pac-12 Football Championship Game tickets now!]

UCLA

The Bruins equaled Stanford’s climb in the CFP Top 25, hopping up four spots to 19th thanks to a business-like 41-0 pummeling of 2-7 Oregon State behind an efficient outing from quarterback Josh Rosen, who completed two-thirds of his passes for 333 yards and two scores. The Bruins also got some help from a bunch of teams ahead of it losing – then-No.13 Memphis, then-No. 18 Ole Miss and then-No. 19 Texas A&M all dropped contests to previously-unranked teams (UCLA also surpassed Temple en route to its top-20 ranking). A lot is going to need to happen for a two-loss team to make the College Football Playoff (read: a ton of higher-ranked teams ahead of it need to lose at least once more), but the Bruins do still control their own destiny in the Pac-12 South. Who knows? Maybe 11-2 could do it, especially considering who the Bruins would have to beat to get to that mark – 6-3 Washington State, No. 10 Utah, 6-3 USC and potentially No. 7 Stanford. UCLA will be rooting for all of those teams to win except for when they play the Bruins.

Here’s the CFP Top 25 in full:

  1. Clemson
  2. Alabama
  3. Ohio State
  4. Notre Dame
  5. Iowa
  6. Baylor
  7. Stanford
  8. Oklahoma State
  9. LSU
  10. Utah
  11. Florida
  12. Oklahoma
  13. Michigan State
  14. Michigan
  15. TCU
  16. Florida State
  17. Mississippi State
  18. Northwestern
  19. UCLA
  20. Navy
  21. Memphis
  22. Temple
  23. North Carolina
  24. Houston
  25. Wisconsin