TCU/Baylor were cochamps of the Big 12 and OSU curb stomped a good Wisconsin team. So that was an unusual situation.
Here’s an interview with the chair of the selection committee:
It’s a good listen. One of the things he said was that there was an intense debate for 6-8 (OSU, Stanford, ND). If Stanford comes out and beats USC decisively, then they probably will jump OSU. He also talks a lot about North Carolina, and their really poor SOS. Doesn’t seem like the committee thinks much of them. Reading between the lines, if they weren’t in the heated debate for 6-8 then the committee sees a clear separation. Florida didn’t even warrant a discussion.
Seems like it backs up what I said. If Alabama/Clemson lose, Florida/NC won’t move into the playoffs. With NC having a very long shot of making it happen.
If you’re interested in participating in a Post-Season Pick’em, please add your ideas to 2015-16 CFB Bowls Season – Discussion Thread, which has been around since 11-22-2015, 10:42 AM. What we do differently, if anything, this year depends on what develops in that thread.
Not their fault, though you’d be hard-pressed to figure that out from the media coverage. The team led Division I in games lost to injury. That includes three missed games for the only experienced QB and almost the whole season for the only experienced WR. The starting tailback was dismissed after the second game and his backup missed half the season with injury. That was after the team lost 12 starters to graduation/the draft over the previous offseason. O’Leary was never a very good recruiter; he could get a thousand two- and three-star guys and coach them up, but never brought in any top-flight talent.* So losing experienced players hurt this team much more than most.
Anyway, it was basically the same staff that won the Fiesta Bowl two seasons ago (less O’Leary, obviously).
*It’s no coincidence that while O’Leary put a ton of players in the NFL, the highest-profile NFL players from UCF (Brandon Marshall, Asante Samuel, Daunte Culpepper) all preceded his tenure (excluding Bortles, who was not heavily recruited).
Since it doesn’t look like Oakminster is going to set up his bowl pick em this year, why don’t you go to Yahoo or whatever and set up a league. Post back with the signup information and those who are interested can sign up. That way we won’t be clogging up the boards with half a dozen threads that only a handful of people are interested in.
(Not that it matters but I prefer to keep everything in one place myself. You can even name it Onmibus)
Oakminster has said he’s having computer problems at the moment, so I’ll wait a while before following up on that suggestion. Besides, it will be a while before the teams are fully known. Maybe another week?
The Big Six bowls will be announced on Sunday on ESPN between noon and 4 Eastern, with another show from 8:30 to 11. I am guessing that one of those two shows will have as many of the other bowl matchups as are known; don’t some conferences have a “bowl selection order” of some sort, where a bowl has to wait until other bowls have made their choices?
I am assuming that somebody at, say, ESPN will post bowl announcements to Twitter as they are announced with some appropriate hashtag, like “#2015BowlAnnouncement Bowling Green vs San Jose State in the GoDaddy Bowl”.
Thanks for that news. I’d been looking for such an announcement for this year’s selection process, with no luck so far. I did confirm those times you gave on our local ESPN schedule, but with virtually no details. The times seem adequate for a full-blown coverage of all 40/41 of them, so maybe by Sunday night things will be clear(er). I don’t have Twitter so hopefully other outlets will catch up quickly. I’ll be checking SDMB in any case.
Oklahoma grad checking in. IMHO, the most interesting potential matchup in the playoff is OU vs Alabama. Is there anyway that the committee vaults Alabama to #1 to set this up as a possible championship game?
There are some hoops that have to be jumped through. First, the Rose and Sugar Bowl committees have to announce their choices for replacement teams for Michigan State, Alabama, and Oklahoma, assuming they are in the semi-finals; then the committee has to place the remaining four teams (presuambly Houston, whichever of Ohio State and Iowa doesn’t get into the Rose, and after that, your guess is as good as mine) into the Peach and Fiesta Bowls.
Also, some conferences have specific orders in which they select teams.
For example, the Big 12 bowls have to be chosen in this order: Alamo, Russell Athletic, Texas, Liberty, Cactus, and Heart of Dallas.
The Pac-12 has a similar system with its bowls (Alamo, Holiday, Foster Farms, Sun, Las Vegas, Cactus), but a bowl has to choose either the team with the best record among those not already chosen or one with the same or one fewer wins.
On the other hand, the Big 10 has a rather complicated process; while the bowls (Outback, Citrus (unless Michigan State is in the Orange), Holiday, Music City or Taxslayer/Gator, Pinstripe, Foster Farms, Heart of Dallas, Quick Lane) request teams, the conference has the final say on who goes where, and no bowl can have the same team more than twice in the six-year period starting with this season.
Because they think Bama is a better team than Clemson? As far as I know, the committee members are allowed to use whatever criteria they want to determine their rankings .
I’m pretty sure that Clemson will remain #1 and Alabama #2. Whether Michigan State jumps Oklahoma is kind of a toss up in my head, with a slight lean towards OU staying put. If the jump does happen, you might get your wish.
I’d be amazed if MSU isn’t 3rd. Not only was OU idle while MSU beat an undefeated #4, but OU’s biggest win was cheapened by Baylor’s loss to 4-7 Texas.
