The final month of the regular season is always filled with posturing from teams and conferences vying for College Football Playoff spots, and coaches already began standing up for their leagues in the hunt for postseason berths. Prior to the debut CFP Top 25 rankings reveal, it was Texas ' Steve Sarkisian championing three-loss SEC teams as playoff candidates. And after the rankings were unveiled, Nebraska's Matt Rhule spoke in defense of the Big Ten.

Rhule specifically pointed to the quartet of two-loss teams in his conference and vouched for them in their respective quests for CFP bids. If one of the squads in that bunch – No. 19 USC , No. 20 Iowa , No. 21 Michigan and No. 23 Washington -- got into the bracket, the Big Ten could have four teams represented in the race

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