The next to last College Football Playoff Top 25 is out and UNC has moved from #14 to #10. The full rankings can be found here.
UNC has three two loss teams ahead of it and is in poor position to make a New Year's Six bowl game if the Tar Heels cannot beat Clemson on Saturday in the ACC Championship game. You could argue UNC is in a poor position to jump into the four team playoff from #10 though a win over #1 Clemson would be a huge boost to the resume. Still, it might take the Tar Heels putting together a dominant win over the Tigers to really make the jump. If Stanford knocks off USC in the Pac 12 title game, the Cardinal's strength of schedule could trump the two losses in the eyes of the committee. Ohio State is also out there with just one loss to Michigan State. However based on the rankings, no team would have as good a win as UNC if the Heels beat #1 Clemson.
Ultimately it shouldn't matter other than a source of motivation for the Tar Heels. To paraphrase Gene Hackman in Hoosiers, going to the College Football Playoff would be in UNC's wildest dream, so let's keep it right there. For a program that's gone through what UNC has in the past five, ten and fifteen years, winning an ACC title would be incredible. For now that should be the focus.
