When looking at the potential top four for the College Football Playoffs, there is a popular phrase: “It will play itself out.” The Week 11 in the CFB world played a few things out. Here are a few things that helped the committee out.
Stanford Lost
A lot of the debate before the weekend was about Which Power 5 conference would get left out if every Conference leader won out. Also the Stanford and Notre Dame was considered a potential ‘play in’ game. Well, since Stanford lost to Oregon, the committee doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. Stanford can still help the committee avoid a tough decision if they knock Notre Dame out of the equation.
Alabama Punished Miss St
Not that this was a surprise, but Mississippi St has a great quarterback who plays the style of Offense that Alabama has traditionally struggled with. I considered it their biggest test left and also a potential headache for the Committee if Bama had lost. They would have had a tough decision taking a 2 Loss SEC team over a 1 Loss weaker conference winner with a weaker schedule. Now, it’s not an issue.
North Carolina keeps destroying teams
North Carolina has had a very laughable schedule like the rest of the ACC and they lost their only real test of the year. However they are crushing teams at the right time. After putting up 125 points against Duke and Miami, they may just control their own destiny with a potential ‘Win and In’ game against Clemson in the ACC Championship Game. Before the Tar Heels surge to fame, the committee would have had a headache if Clemson slipped up in the ACC CG. Now they can just let the ACC Winner in, regardless. Maybe.
Oklahoma Beat Baylor
One inevitable for the playoff committee was the Big 12 saving all their competition for the end of the season. It’s brilliant marketing when all of your best teams should be embarrassed if they aren’t undefeated going into the last half of November. Never the less, we had 4 Big XII teams looking to give the playoff committee heart burn. With Oklahoma beating Baylor, that knocks one of them down. It doesn’t fix everything because they can still do what they did last year and all have 1 conference lost. Maybe the Big XII commissioner will do what he did last year and volunteer to not be in the playoffs! This Committee values the phrase: “Conference Champion” much more than “Co-Conference Champions.”
In reality, the only event on this list that actually narrowed the field for the Playoff Committee was Stanford losing. There will be a lot of tough decisions for the committee if things don’t work themselves out.
Here is my list of teams that I believe will take a lot of stress off the committee just by taking care of business.
My Top Four
- Clemson
- Alabama
- Ohio St
- Oklahoma St
Looking In: Oklahoma, Notre Dame, North Carolina.
I actually think Oklahoma will beat Oklahoma St and then they jump ahead of Notre Dame. For the committee’s sake, they would love an undefeated conference champion to remove any decision they would have to make.
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Awesome work Brandon! Love SweepVegas!