Outside of next week’s Army Navy game, the College Football regular season concluded on Saturday. With Oregon beating Penn State, they are the only team that finished undefeated, and will be the #1 seed in the 12 team playoff that will start in 2 weeks. Who else will be dancing?
Penn State will still be in, no doubt, even though they finished the season with a loss to Oregon. The same goes for the other title game earlier in the day between Georgia and Texas. I’m guessing the winner will get the bye, but the loser is still safely in. Arizona State demolished Iowa State during the first games of the day; they’re in… what a story btw. Since Boise State beat UNLV on Friday night, they will also be in; they deserve it too… they almost beat Oregon earlier in the year, and with their Heisman candidate running the football like he is, should be fun to watch. Notre Dame, Indiana, Ohio State, and Tennessee makes it 10 teams, which left only 2 slots to fill; the final score of the final game on Saturday would determine those slots.
I was on SMU in the game, and was very disappointed to see them getting their asses kicked by Clemson; they weren’t done though. I turned into the end of the game to see SMU tie the game with very little time on the clock. The winner of this game was safely into the playoffs; the loser, if it were Clemson, was out… if it were SMU, would be a coin flip with Alabama essentially. During the ensuing kickoff, Clemson returned it to midfield, which gave them a chance to take a shot for FG range, which is exactly what they did. They threw one pass, called a timeout, and marched out their true freshman kicker for a long 50+ yard FG; he absolutely nailed it. Clemson just punched their ticket! Now, SMU or Alabama…
Once the official word is released on Sunday, we will know, and we’ll also find out the brackets; this is fun. Is Oregon the team to beat? Their record says yes, but how much better are they than everybody else? They did beat Ohio State and Boise State during the regular season, and Penn State in the Big 10 Championship; that’s 25% of the field. Sure, they didn’t have an SEC type schedule, but it wasn’t exactly weak either. I don’t know. Yes, they deserve to be the favorite, but certainly don’t think they’re unbeatable; I don’t think there’s anybody that is. At least we won’t have a repeat champ in Michigan, and hopefully, won’t have Alabama in the mix either. Some new blood!
I see some bowl game matchups already being announced too… With the 12 team playoff kicking off on top of all the normal bowl games this time of year, it’s time to get comfortable and enjoy the end of the college football season. I know there’s always the recency bias… “this is the best ever” type stuff, but man… this may truly be the best college football season ever. Hoping for an exciting conclusion, as long as the refs stay out of the way… enjoy!
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