The latest College Football Playoff rankings were released on Tuesday, much to the dismay of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish -- despite defeating Boston College 19-16 -- fell from No. 4 to No. 6.

Iowa, Michigan State and Oklahoma all leapfrogged the program and control their own destiny.

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While a playoff berth looks bleak ahead of Saturday's visit to Stanford, the Fighting Irish are still in a position to be the first team in.

At 10-1, they're essentially the college football equivalent of "break in case of emergency."

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On a collision course with the Big Ten Championship, Iowa and Michigan State will eventually cancel each other out. Only one will be able to stake the claim of being a conference champion.

Alabama and Clemson will be heavily favored in their respective conference championship game, so much so that a loss would serve as an insurmountable stain keeping them from the College Football Playoff.

As for Oklahoma, the Sooners must first concentrate on a trip to Oklahoma State before anything else.

All the aforementioned land mines benefit Notre Dame.

If history is any indication -- or even recent history given Ohio State's 17-14 loss to the Spartans -- the Fighting Irish will be waiting to calm the chaos.

Unless, of course, they experience a slip of their own on Saturday.

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