Playoffs??

It's finally here. The College Football Playoffs are set and of course, there is plenty of talk surrounding who got in and who didn't. When the first set of rankings came out we all knew that there would be some buzz. We all knew people would talk and there would be more questions than answers. Yet here are, early December and we have a Final Four.

The two semifinal games will be played on January 1^st and they are the Sugar Bowl, with Nick Saban and his number one ranked Alabama Crimson Tide taking on Urban Meyer and his fourth ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. The second of the two semifinal games will see potential Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota and second ranked Oregon going up against the reigning Heisman winner Jameis Winston and third ranked Florida State. When the final rankings come out is when all the chatter begins and there was plenty of it. 

Over the last two weeks the top four has changed quite a bit, not without controversy however. See for yourself. 

Going Into Conference Championships

1. Alabama (11-1) lost to Ole Miss
2. Oregon (11-1) lost to Arizona 
3. TCU (10-1) lost to Baylor 
4. Florida State (12-0) 

First two out:

5. Ohio State (11-1) lost to Virginia Tech 

6. Baylor (10-1) lost to West Virginia 

After Conference Championships:

1.      Alabama (12-1) SEC Champs
2.      Oregon (12-1) PAC 12 Champs
3.      Florida State (13-0) ACC Champs
4.      Ohio State (12-1) Big Ten Champs

 First two out:

     5. Baylor (11-1) beat no. 11 Kansas State

     6. TCU (11-1) beat Iowa State

 There are plenty of takeaways from the latest rankings.

• ·      Style points do matter (see Ohio State’s 59-0 victory over Wisconsin)
• ·      Not having a conference championship REALLY hurt the Big 12, mainly TCU and Baylor
• ·      For some reason, Florida State dropped despite losing a game
• ·      Matchups, matchups, and matchups. It matters who you beat, who you lost to, where they were ranked at the time, and where they’re ranked at the end of the year.
• ·      “One True Champion” doesn’t apply to the Big 12. Even though it’s their slogan
• ·      Head-to-head wins don’t seem to matter. Baylor beat TCU in regular season but was ranked below the Horned Frogs.

We can all agree that this is far better than the former BCS standings. We’ve all wanted the playoff system and we finally got it. If we were expecting it to be perfect, then we clearly expected too much. I’ll be willing to bet that this current format does not last long and changes will occur. Does that mean an eight-team playoff? Maybe the Big 12 adds more members for a possible conference championship game? Whatever the argument is for what can make it better you’re always going to have people who disagree. Those people are the fans of teams who get left out of course because why would you complain if your team makes the playoff?

TCU- I understand where TCU fans are coming from. Your team won it’s regular season finale by 52 points and fell from 3^rd to 6^th, I get that, but you also have to understand the whole not having a conference championship game doesn’t help.

            *TCU will play no. 9 Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl (December 31^st)

Baylor- The only thing I can say is sorry. You beat TCU head-to-head and beat a ranked team to close out the season (Kansas State) while TCU beat a two-win Iowa State team. You shouldn’t have been outside the top four to begin with but clearly your win over the Horned Frogs didn’t matter and for that, I apologize.

            *Baylor will play no. 8 Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl Classic (January 1^st)

This system has a long ways to go until it’s “perfect”, and that might not happen for years to come but this year’s playoff system is a start. It’s something that we as college football fans have been waiting for and if this is a taste of what it could be like going forward, it’s going to be a fun ride.