Bold predictions for Week 14 in college football

The USA TODAY Sports college football staff — Nicole Auerbach, Paul Myerberg, George Schroeder and Dan Wolken — weighs in with some bold predictions for Week 14 of the college football season:

Nicole Auerbach

I love chaos, and I will never apologize for that. Therefore, my bold prediction will entail quite a bit of chaos: Upsets in both the Pac-12 and ACC championship games. This means that there’s the potential for three (!) Big Ten teams in the four-team Playoff.

In this scenario, Alabama and Ohio State are definitely in. And I think without Washington and Clemson in the picture, the next team up is the Big Ten champion (which, for the sake of this prediction, let’s say is Wisconsin). After that, the pool for the No. 4 spot includes Michigan, Colorado and perhaps — as a long shot — the Big 12 champ. Michigan’s overall strength of schedule, passing of the eye test and head-to-head win against Colorado should put the Wolverines in. Chaos!

USA TODAY Sports college football staff picks for Week 14

(As an aside, if this actually happens, expect the Playoff to expand to six or eight teams immediately. Can’t have that many Power Five leagues left out of this very lucrative Playoff setup.)

Paul Myerberg

In the final Playoff ranking, it’ll be No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Clemson, No. 3 Washington and No. 4 Ohio State. I think the Buckeyes’ stock will take a hit due to their lack of a conference title, but it won’t drop OSU out of the field entirely.

And there’s no logic behind the idea that the committee would want to set up a potential Alabama-Ohio State national championship game and separate the two teams in the semifinals. Why not guarantee big-time ratings in the semis by putting the Tide and Buckeyes in one game?

George Schroeder

This will inject a tiny amount of chaos into the College Football Playoff’s system — or at least into its preferred schedule. The Playoff is slated to release its final ranking and assign teams for the Playoff and the other four New Year’s Six bowls on Sunday afternoon. But the Cotton Bowl pairings will have to wait a week.

Western Michigan will beat Ohio to win the MAC championship and complete an unbeaten regular season, and the Broncos will remain ahead of Navy in the selection committee’s Top 25. But that won’t give them the Group of Five’s automatic berth into a New Year’s Six bowl (this year, that slot will go into the Cotton).

Navy will beat Temple in the American Athletic Conference championship game, and since the Midshipmen don’t complete the regular season until playing Army Dec. 12, the committee will have to wait until that evening to finalize the bowl pairings. Because with a win against Army, Navy could conceivably surpass Western Michigan, the committee can’t make the call this weekend.

In Playoff era, conference title games become a harder sell

Dan Wolken

Ohio State will fall from the No. 2 spot to the 4 seed without playing a game in the final playoff rankings and be matched up with Alabama in the Peach Bowl. Call me conspiratorial, but I think the committee would relish a Urban Meyer-Nick Saban rematch of the 2014 semifinal and it would be easy to justify because Ohio State isn't a conference champion and probably should be No. 4 because of it.

Plus, I think if Washington gets in it would be very beneficial from a ticket sales standpoint to have a West Coast team in the Fiesta Bowl rather than two from the Eastern time zone. So Washington goes up to the 3 slot and Ohio State-Alabama becomes a mammoth semifinal

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