It looks like the committee’s got the final four set:
Georgia
Alabama
Auburn
LSU
Sorry, I had to.
Honestly, I think Alabama might be out. I was thinking last week that one loss shouldn’t end the Tide’s season, but I confess that the boys at Fox’s regular broadcast pre-game show made a pretty good case for the winner of Ohio State and Wisconsin. I absolutely believe Wisconsin gets in if they win - being undefeated and all. The bigger question is what happens to Ohio State but if they can convincingly defeat Wisconsin they will have played a tougher schedule and emerged with only 2 losses. If you’re an Alabama fan, you’re hoping for a very sloppy Ohio State win, preferably one that goes into double overtime.
I’m normally an Oklahoma / Big 12 skeptic but I think this year’s Sooners are pretty damn good. I still wonder how they’ll do against a more athletic front line and line backing core, but give Mayfield some time to throw and I do NOT like the defensive matchups for any of the teams still in contention. The Sooners have a very talented group of receivers, very hard to cover. OTOH, if Clemson, Georgia, Wisconsin/Ohio St or Alabama can make that pocket collapse, then the Sooners will be lucky to get to 20 points.
This is turning out to be quite the anticlimatic day. Georgia beat Auburn easily, Clemson is pounding Miami, and OSU is stomping Wisconsin. As long as Barret remembers his team isn’t wearing red today they should win easily.
Gotta feel bad for Auburn. Kerryon was their offense and he was clearly hurt.
They should be out. The only reason they’re a one-loss team is because they weren’t good enough to play in their conference championship. OSU beat 3 top ten teams; UA beat zero. Not even a close decision.
OSU got blown out at home by Oklahoma and by a mediocre Iowa team. Bama lost a close game on the road to a top 10 Auburn team. Not even a close decision.
Nah, more like what ACC, Georgia, and Alabama would bring to the table. Ohio State is not an impressive defense, but Clemson is, and Georgia and Alabama probably are too, though Bama’s had better defenses in the past. It’s hard to know how things will go down when teams mostly play in their own conferences, but if I had to pick a team that is the scariest, it certainly seems like Clemson would fit that description. I thought that they’d have an off year without Watson, but that has not been the case.
Yeah, I agree, and yes, I’m changing my mind. I think Alabama should get in. If Ohio State had blown out Wisconsin and finished the year with a statement win the way they did in 2014, I might be inclined to give Ohio St the benefit of the doubt. But Alabama is basically in exactly the same position Ohio State was in last year and the committee awarded the Buckeyes the final spot. Worse, the committee chose Ohio St over a team that defeated Ohio State to win their conference division before going en route to win the Big 10 - didn’t seem to matter to the committee.
Much of the country is going to be outraged no matter whom the committee selects. Either they’ll be outraged over two SEC teams getting into the playoff, or they’ll be outraged that Ohio State got the benefit of the doubt last year when they shouldn’t have but Alabama fails to get that same benefit this year. I suspect what this really comes down to is which team the committee decides is going to be a more interesting opponent for Clemson, and with that being the case, my guess is Alabama will get the nod. Ohio State has played some good games but they’ve also been slapped around twice. At least Alabama can say its games have been consistently competitive. The committee does NOT want another 30-0 beat-down like what happened last year. I think Bama gets it.
Since it’s presumed that Clemson will be the #1 seed, another thing that the committee might consider (but won’t ever admit to publicly) is whether they would rather see a rematch of the Clemson vs OSU blow out from last year or a rubber match between Clemson and Bama.
That’s pretty much what the selection committee is doing.
I agree with the others: if a team doesn’t win its conference, doesn’t even qualify for the championship game of its conference, then it cannot be the #1 team in the country. It is ridiculous that the 4 team playoff just turns into a second chance for losing SEC teams instead of being a true playoff: with conference champions pitted against other conference champions that did not play each other to see who is really the best on the field.
I’m a Buckeye and think we have a better team than Alabama, so I’m disappointed with the selection. But I won’t complain, because the loss the Iowa is very disqualifying. Better is no good if you don’t prove it on the field.
I’m not upset that OSU didn’t get in because I think they just get curb stomped by Clemson (again). I don’t like it because it threatens some of the great improvements we’ve seen in CFB.
There’s no reason to schedule tough OOC games because if you lose it hurts you. Does Alabama get in over a one loss USC or OSU?
It’s better to not play in the conference championship than it is to play in it. Auburn was in until they had to play Georgia again. They would have been better off not playing in the SEC championship game.
Georgia got stomped by Auburn earlier in the season. That seems to be disqualifying (if we assume that the Iowa loss was disqualifying for OSU).
Plus Alabama played so poorly that it didn’t even get the opportunity to play Georgia. That’s the infuriating part. Since Alabama did not qualify for its conference championship, it gets a pass on maybe getting stomped by a quality team, or at least having to play a tough game to prove itself worthy to be in the playoff.
Auburn would have been better off losing to Alabama just as Alabama benefitted by losing. That’s the absurdity of this type of system.
