so much for Utah's Defense of Considerable Death! Poseurs, not surprised at all. Thud.
The biggest problem with the every-week-is-a-playoff theory is that it is virtually impossible for a college-football-analog to George Mason or Loyola to play itself into title picture. Ask Central Florida.
so much for Utah's Defense of Considerable Death! Poseurs, not surprised at all. Thud.
Also, now that Utah has lost, it is hard to make the case that today’s games represent a “playoff” for Ohio State and LSU. Even Clemson has a strong chance of making the playoff with a loss today. This is probably the way it should be if the goal is to have the 4 most “deserving” teams make the actual playoff, but it certainly goes against the notion that “every week (late in the season) is a playoff”.
Earlier in the thread, I believe someone mentioned that no team has ever lost their conference title game and made the actual playoff. However, I wonder if the #1 team overall going into the conference championship games has ever lost their title game. I am too lazy to look this up, but I suspect this hasn’t happened yet.
My personal pet peeve is when a team has the chance to make the playoff without even having to play in a championship game (as would likely have been the case this year if Alabama had defeated Auburn last week). My solution to this would be to add an extra game during conference championship week between the top 2 ranked teams who did not qualify for their conference title games. Heck, you could even set it up so that a very highly ranked group of 5 team could choose to forgo their conference championship game to play the highest ranked power 5 team not eligible for their conference title game.
Yeah, if LSU dominates Georgia they (UGA) are done. Hopefully that won’t happen. I just can’t imagine Baylor as one of the final four teams. That would take quite a bit of the fun out of the Playoff. Baylor would be considerably less intriguing than even Washington was in 2016
Here are my predictions prior to today’s games commencing. And yes, I acknowledge that posting predictions after the PAC12 game is over is cheating:
1. Ohio State
2. LSU
3. Clemson
4. Oklahoma
However, I will be rooting for Georgia to beat LSU.
Bob Green
P5 tickets are sold well in advance but buyers often do not know if their team will make it until 6-7 days before.
G5 tickets are different. The highest rated team hosts. Often this isn’t even known until 6-7 in advance.
I wouldn’t support the G5 team being in what is essentially a play-in game, AND having to forego a shot at their own conference championship, anyway.
You both raise excellent points. As long as we are brainstorming, another option would be to have the Group of 5 teams move their conference title games up a week in order to allow them to win their conference championship AND have a shot against a highly ranked Power 5 team the next week. There are probably logistic challenges with this as well, but I suspect they may prefer this to never even having a shot at a championship.
Who gets left out if OU win, Clemson win, Georgia win, and Wisco win?
Halftime: Baylor 13, Oklahoma 10
Two significant factors:
1. OU QB Jalen Hurts with two turnovers a fumble and interception.
2. Baylor QB Charlie Brewer out of the game. His head hit the ground hard on a sack, he was evaluated on the sidelines and returned to the game for a series or two before the Head Ref approached the Baylor staff and told them Brewer needed additional evaluation. Brewer headed to the locker room and has not returned. 2nd half status unknown.
Ten of Baylor’s 13 points have been scored with the back-up QB on the field.
Bob Green
Baylor Head Coach Matt Rhule just said Charlie Brewer is out for the rest of the game. Makes you wonder how he was cleared to return in the first place.
Bob Green
Big XII Championship game headed to overtime tied at 23.
Bob Green
I don't know much about football but it seems to me the 1 seed will be extremely important.
Even if LSU thinks they're already in, they better beat Georgia to (a) knock Ga out, (b) get the 1 seed and force OSU and Clemson to war a week before the title game, and (c) play an opponent that is much preferable to Ga or Clem or OSU.