No. 6 Oregon enters the home stretch of the regular season needing to win out to stay alive for a second straight College Football Playoff bid. It begins Saturday at Iowa's Kinnick Stadium, where highly ranked visiting teams usually must be at their best to leave with a victory.

The Ducks (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) saw their margin for error reduced this week when they landed at No. 9 in the initial CFP rankings. They have a 10-point home loss to Indiana and their best win so far is against Northwestern. The committee judged their resume accordingly.

Oregon will go against a team on the rise in Iowa (6-2, 4-1), still outside The Associated Press poll but No. 20 in the CFP rankings after winning three straight. The Hawkeyes come in 4-4 at home against top-10 teams since 2016, the third-best recor

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