Just just year, Kansas State beat TCU in the conference championship game. TCU ended up in the playoffs and Kansas State wasn’t even under consideration. Was Kansas State robbed? No, because the outcome of one game isn’t enough information.
FSU with their victory over Miami brought back memories of 1982 for the AP voters as they are still #4 despite UW’s victory over Utah.
Will the playoff selection committee feel the same?
Will a victory over Northern Alabama next week have a similar impact beating out a Washington victory over Oregon State?
In other ranking news, will Georgia’s domination of Ole Miss put them in #1 on Tuesday?
Weekly Bump
FSU still #4 after beating Miami and Washington still #5 after beating Utah. The reason Chair Boo Corrigan gave was that FSU/Miami is a traditionally tough in-state rivalry.
Georgia moved up to #1 by beating #9 Ole Miss
The hypocrisy … it burns.
I suspect North Alabama will be talked up by Boo, after all those FCS schools can play tough. And that 3-7 record doesn’t mean anything.
From a Wall St. Journal story about the unbeaten Washington football team:
“A dumbfounding gaffe by Husky linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala near the end of Washington’s nail-biting win over a top-20 Utah team put the outcome in peril last Saturday. Tuputala intercepted a pass and appeared to score on the runback, but he dropped the ball one yard short of the goal line in celebration.”
Why why why do players keep doing this? Is it so uncool to hold onto the ball past the goal line?
“(Coach) DeBoer said he told Tuputala the day after the game that the Huskies know he’s a good teammate and that they were there to support him.”
I’d have suspended him for a game; better yet showed the team film before the season of all the brain-dead instances where players have done this, and told them they’d be yanked from the game and suspended if they ever pulled anything so dumb.
I don’t really follow football in general and college even less, but what I do know is that:
- There are a LOT (more that 128 I think ) Division 1 football teams
(ok, many of them have no hope of winning a tournament) - There are relatively few games.(compared to the NFL which has 16 games (plus a bye week) for 32 teams – college has more teams and fewer weeks.
One radical idea is just have the whole season be a bracket tournament like March madness for basketball. Seeding is one issue, and another is you wouldn’t;'t always have traditional matchups (Wis vs Minn, Army vs Navy, etc)
So a slightly less radical idea is have some traditional matchups, but still have a bracket tournament (with more teams than current tournament) Not sure what the ideal size is 32? 16? Again seeding may be tricky. A double elimination tournament may be interesting but may have too many games to be practical.
Again, I don’t really follow football, but the too many teams /. too few games still bothers me even if I don’t care about most matchups.
Brian
There are 133 teams in 10 conferences comprising the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision).
Or do a drill. Everyone has to carry the ball in from the 5 yard line and cannot drop the ball until 5 yards in the endzone. Repeat about a billion times.
Georgia and Washington have wins over ranked teams. Georgia is more dominant but Washington’s opponent was higher ranked. Both wins on the road.
Ohio State has a dominant win over a mediocre team.
Michigan has trouble over a mediocre team.
Florida State dominates a second tier team.
The best one-loss teams all win.
I think the only change this week is Washington and Florida State (finally) flip-flop. I mean, how can you justify FSU still being #4 without outright saying the fix is in?
I think you’re right at this point (but not before now - up until this week FSU actually had the stronger resume per ESPN’s resume page). But now, Jordan Travis is most likely out for the remainder of the season, so we’ll see how things go for FSU, but that has to be taken into account.
I still think that if UGA, OSU/Michigan, UW, and FSU get through the regular season and Conference championships undefeated that has to be your playoff. The loser of Michigan/OSU can fucking suck it and wait for the 12 team free-for-all coming next year.
There will be 134 FBS schools in 2024. (Kennesaw State will be in its second year of transition, and will be under the same restrictions that James Madison is this season.)
You could try to stage a full-season (well, seven-round) single elimination tournament, if you allowed the losers to schedule games in the weeks after they lost - e.g. the first round losers would then schedule games for the dates of the remaining six rounds. The problem is, you don’t give the fan bases much warning as to who and where they are playing.
As for a double-elimination tournament, that is not going to happen, for one very simple reason; you can’t advertise a “championship game” too far in advance if only one team can win the championship in it. This is also why the basketball tournaments are single elimination. The baseball and softball tournaments get away with it because they’re not nearly popular enough for this to matter, although there was a time when CBS talked the NCAA into changing the final of the baseball tournament to a single game so it could advertise it as the “NCAA championship game.”
Woot! Washington is #4.
First playoff game is this weekend between Michigan and Ohio State. I think the consensus is if Michigan loses they are out but if Ohio State loses, there will still be a path for them to get in. Any predictions? I say Michigan wins.
The other big game is Florida State vs. Florida. Travis is out so can Florida win? I have not been impressed by FSU so I am predicting FSU loses, if not this week but against Louisville in the ACC championship.
I really find the scenarios next week interesting. Who gets in if Oregon, Alabama and Louisville all win the championship game?
Well, Louisville is out. With their loss today there is no path for them even if they win the ACC Championship game.
In other news, Michigan is now win-and-in next week vs. Iowa. The big question is where Ohio State will be in the Orgon/Texas/Alabama one loss mix (assuming Alabama beats Auburn later today).
Georgia, Michigan, Washington and Florida State are still undefeated. I think we can assume that if they win next week they are in. All but Georgia are probably out if they lose next week.
SEC and Pac-12 are pretty much guarantied of getting a team in. Alabama is in if they beat Georgia and Oregon is in if they beat Washington.
So that all leaves Texas and Ohio State needing help with a Michigan and/or Florida State loss next week.
My Iowa Hawkeyes will do their best, but I’ll concede it’s unlikely.
The Iowa - Michigan game will be played in an apocalyptic blizard. The over/under will be 12. Final score will be Iowa 4, Michigan 2; all safeties.
Is the conference game indoors? ?? ???
If so, same score when the roof collapses and the game called off.
That’ll be nothing next to the apocalyptic blizzard of phone calls and e-mails from Ohio State backers, trying to influence the playoff committee to let the Buckeyes in.
Of the 8 undefeated/one-loss teams, 6 are win-and-in (Georgia, Michigan, Washington, Florida State, Oregon, Alabama). Of those, one one (Georgia) has a reasonable chance of getting in with a loss. So here is the big question, if one of Michigan, Washington or Florida State loses this weekend, who gets in?
If they win but Georgia loses, who gets in?
I don’t know if Alabama is strictly a win-and-in scenario this year. They may need for Texas to lose above them. If Alabama wins but Michigan, Washington, Florida State and Texas all also win, it is going to be very hard to justify jumping Alabama over a Texas team that is also a conference champ and which beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The Texas fans might burn down the NCAA headquarters building if that is what happens.
First play-in game in progress. Huskies not looking like 10 point dawgs.
As a UW alumnus, I am proud to announce the first playoff team of the year is the University of Washington Huskies.