UNC Football: Tar Heels Continue to Climb CFP Rankings

The UNC football team continues to stack up wins and steadily climb the College Football Playoff Rankings.

The UNC football program has put itself in a great position with two weeks remaining in the regular season.  Following Carolina’s thrilling victory over Wake Forest on Saturday, the Heels have officially clinched their spot in Charlotte for an ACC Championship Game showdown with Clemson.

Sitting at 9-1 overall and undefeated in ACC play, Carolina is having a great season and the rest of the nation is starting to take notice.  UNC moved up two more spots in this week’s College Football Playoff Rankings, as they now land at #13 in the nation.

North Carolina is still not getting an abundance of love from the committee, however, as they are the lowest-ranked one-loss team in the polls and sit behind five teams with two losses.  The fact that the Heels are still ranked behind the likes of Utah, Penn State, and Oregon shows a lack of respect for UNC and the ACC as a whole.  The full Top 25 is as follows:

The top five of the rankings remain unchanged, with Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, and TCU combining for the top four spots and Tennessee currently sitting as the first team out (although Ohio State and Michigan still play each other).  The biggest results from last weekend were the losses (and likely elimination from CFP consideration) of one-loss teams like Oregon, Ole Miss, and UCLA.

When looking at the ACC, the Heels are again the second-highest-ranked team, trailing only #9 Clemson.  Florida State is now up to No. 19 and NC State (surprisingly) remained in the rankings at No. 24 after their home loss to Boston College.  If UNC and NC State both win this weekend, there should be a ranked matchup in Chapel Hill on Black Friday.

Also of note, North Carolina’s loss to Notre Dame continues to look better, as the Fighting Irish are now up to No. 18 after being unranked for much of the year.

Although Carolina probably deserves to be ranked a little bit higher by the committee, the important thing for the Heels is to keep on winning.  If the UNC football program keeps stacking wins, they will continue to steadily move up the rankings, and if the Tar Heels can enter Charlotte with an 11-1 record they will be very much in the conversation for at least a New Year’s Six Bowl and possibly the CFP.

Follow us @KeepingItHeel on Twitter and like our fan page on Facebook for continued coverage of UNC news, updates, and recruiting.