Saturday was one of the roughest days in college football history, with five teams ranked in the top 11 in the Associated Press poll losing, four of them to unranked opponents. It was, in a word, chaos.
And the confusion is making the College Football Playoff even more complicated. Is this good news for actual CFP selection committee members? The group won’t meet for another four weeks, so there will be a ton of additional data points and results to help piece together the picture before the 13 committee members rank these teams from No. 1 to No. 25. You will have to do so.
But an incomplete resume hasn’t stopped anyone from analyzing the playoff picture, and an upset won’t stop me. The advantage of the new 12-team CFP format is that one loss doesn’t automatically disqualify a team, but it can cause a team to be removed from my CFP snapshot immediately after. So even though Alabama has the best win in the nation (against Georgia), the loss against Vanderbilt (and six straight quarters of multi-dimensional defense), I’m now against the Crimson. Not putting the Tide in the frame. But Alabama can definitely get back on the field, and there will be plenty of opportunities to do so over the rest of the SEC schedule.
Texas is back in the No. 1 spot in the AP poll this week. Thank goodness I was free for a few weeks. — and the Longhorns are back in the top spot in my CFP bracket as well. Their best win is better than the one at Ohio State, but the Buckeyes have a big chance to change that when they travel to Eugene, Oregon this Saturday.
Moved Clemson to third place as ACC champions. The Tigers have played very well since the Week 1 loss, and some of my colleagues think I’m blaming them too much for a lopsided loss to one of the best teams in the country. There is. While some may think that the quality of the wins is more important than the weight of the losses, I personally believe that teams need to be held accountable for the losses they incur. (We’ll be at Notre Dame in just a second.) And after Miami had to escape two weeks in a row, it’s time to acknowledge Clemson as the ACC’s new favorite. After all the obituaries written about the death of the Dabo Swinney dynasty, it’s actually pretty funny and perhaps fitting that the Tigers would win the league championship and automatic bid this season.
It also lifted BYU to fourth place as Big 12 champions. It feels like a bit of a reset for me, realizing that the undefeated Cougs deserve the top spot considering their head-to-head win against Kansas State, who I consider to be the league’s top contender. Now, I realize that Texas Tech is the de facto leader in the Big 12 at the moment (as the Red Raiders have played three league games), but this is BYU’s best winning ability. Based on.
Currently, it is very difficult to make large bids. I don’t know if Penn State is truly one of the best at-large teams in the nation right now, but the Nittany Lions have been relatively consistent, which is why I prefer them over Miami. That’s what gives them the edge (Miami remains undefeated for the time being with a dramatic come-from-behind win. Beyond that, we’re talking about a deeply flawed team. Louisville has played well enough to remain in the standings even after a heartbreaking loss to Los Angeles, and Louisville will need to erase those losses in order to post a signature win late in the season, but for now I’m looking at this team as a win. I’m encouraged by the win over the Cardinals, some improvement in the passing attack, and a strong enough defense to put the Irish in my slot. (This logic also makes sense for Texas A&M. Admittedly, Texas A&M’s lone loss also looks better now, and the Aggies will get a more thorough review next week.
Considering the magnitude of the losses that Alabama and Tennessee endured, Ole Miss losing to Kentucky a week later doesn’t seem too damaging. So, for now, the Rebels will stand up again and enter the CFP slot. Kentucky might be delicious too! That league is in such turmoil at the moment, which is part of the reason I’m pushing the Big Ten for the final at-large slot. And who better than the 6-0 Hoosiers? Coach Curt Cignetti’s team is getting Indiana University off to its best start in nearly 60 years, and there’s nothing shaky about the way the Hoosiers win games. They have a great quarterback in Curtis Rourke and are fundamentally sound on both sides of the ball. They don’t have any big wins on their resume yet, but there aren’t any major flaws as this schedule still has plenty of winnable games.
Meanwhile, after UNLV lost to Syracuse, I entered Boise State as the highest-ranked Group 5 champion. Ashton Giunty is not only one of the most outstanding players in college football, but he is also likely the first running back taken in next spring’s NFL Draft. The Broncos have struggled defensively (to say the least), but I hope this Giunty-powered offense can take them far this year. If Boise State wins the Mountain West with its only loss to Oregon State in a close game, this team has a good chance of making it to the No. 4 seed line. It all depends on who wins the Big 12 and how well the top teams compete against each other, but it’s definitely within the realm of possibility that the Group of 5 champions will be ranked higher than the Big 12 champions at the end of the season . That possibility is not reflected in my bracket at this time, but I want to make sure everyone is prepared for that possibility. After all, even crazier things are happening in this crazy sport.
