The Clemson, Auburn, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin football teams will enter championship weekend positioned to earn a playoff spot with just one more victory.
But a potential Alabama-Ohio State controversy looms.
Clemson moved up to No. 1 in the final College Football Playoff rankings before the semifinals are set by the selection committee on Sunday.
Alabama fell from No. 1 to fifth in the new rankings Tuesday night after losing to Auburn, and Georgia was sixth. Miami slipped after taking its first loss of the season last week from No. 2 to seventh, just ahead of Ohio State at eighth.
“It’s close separation from team No. 5 Alabama, six Georgia, seven Miami, eight Ohio State. Those teams are close,” said committee chairman Kirby Hocutt, the athletic director at Texas Tech. “Very little separation in the committee’s eyes between teams five through eight.”
Each of the top four teams plays a conference title game Saturday against another highly ranked team, creating potential play-in playoff games. Clemson will face Miami in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship; Auburn and Georgia will play for the Southeastern Conference title; Wisconsin will face Ohio State for the Big Ten title; and Oklahoma will face No. 11 TCU for the Big 12 Conference title.
n Myles, Patterson, Fitzpatrick named to SEC Football Community Service Team: At Birmingham, Alabama, Mississippi State’s Gabe Myles, Ole Miss’ Javon Patterson, and Alabama’s Minkah Fitzpatrick were named Tuesday to the SEC’s Football Community Service Team.
Myles, a senior from Starkville, is a three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll. He routinely reads to elementary students at the TK Martin Center and has participated in Read Across America, a nation-wide reading celebration that takes place annually on March 2. He has volunteered time toward the Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign and at Camp Rising Sun. He is a member of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, a social/service and professional fraternity on campus. Myles was also MSU’s representative for the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team and Wuerffel Trophy.
Patterson, a junior from Petal, is a member of the NCAA DI Football Recruiting Ad Hoc Working Group and was a 2017 nominee for the Wuerffel Trophy, as well as the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team.
The three-year starter has volunteered his time with the Special Olympics, including the 2015 and 2016 Unified Egg Bowl events, which pit Special Olympics athletes from Ole Miss and Mississippi State against each other for a flag football game to raise funds for those programs at both schools. He visits students at both Oxford and Lafayette Elementary twice a semester to share his student-athlete experience and personal story.
A team leader in the community and on campus in his three years at Alabama, Fitzpatrick has given his time to several groups around Tuscaloosa, including the YMCA, TAP, Inc. and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. The Old Bridge, New Jersey, native has been active in mentoring at-risk youth in the area. He also spent his spring break in 2017 with a group of Alabama student-athletes as part of an FCA mission trip that did relief work in Costa Rica.
Arkansas’ Frank Ragnow, Auburn’s Daniel Carlson, Florida’s Johnny Townsend, Georgia’s Aaron Davis, Kentucky’s Jacob Hyde, LSU’s John David Moore, Missouri’s Anthony Hines, South Carolina’s Spencer Eason-Riddle, Tennessee’s Kyle Phillips, Texas A&M’s Koda Martin, and Vanderbilt’s Tommy Openshaw rounded out the list.
The SEC names a Community Service Team for each of its 21 sports in an effort to highlight student-athletes who give back to their communities through superior service efforts.
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