The implementation of a 12-team college football playoff has generated a lot of conversation and has generally been good for the sport. We’re even getting coaches online pleading the case for their respective teams.
Through the last big week of the regular season, there were at least 17 teams that could have played themselves into, or out of, the playoff.
That, of course, did happen.
Miami, Florida, played itself out by losing for the second time in three weeks. Ohio State, still my pick to win the whole thing, played itself out of a possible No. 1 seed and trip to the Big Ten Championship game with its confusing play in a loss to bitter rival Michigan. Notre Dame may be playing the best ball of anyone in the country heading into the playoff, and could get the coveted No. 5 seed and a home first-round game. That Irish loss to Northern Illinois seems like years ago.
There are still a lot of questions left to answer too.
If Georgia loses the SEC Championship game to Texas and falls to 10-3, do the Bulldogs still get in? Is ACC regular season champ SMU in with a loss to 9-3 Clemson in the conference title game? Do any of the three-loss SEC teams have a realistic shot to get in?
I like the 12-team playoff, but there may not be 12 teams worthy of making the field. Maybe this year is an outlier, but as conferences get bigger it could be the norm. There are some easy fixes, though. The SEC could go to a nine-game conference schedule like the rest of the power conferences. We could go back to divisions and eliminate crazy tiebreakers like the Big 12 had. Divisions would have helped Ohio State, too, as the Buckeyes in the Big Ten standings finished behind two teams it beat — Indiana and Penn State — that OSU shared a division with for years.
It’d be easy to say the picture will become clearer after this weekend’s conference title games, but that may not be the case. What if UNLV beats Boise State in the Mountain West title game? How about an Army win over Tulane in the American? Who gets the Group of 5 bid?
There are still a lot of questions left to be answered. Let’s see how it plays out.
The “If I Voted” College Football Playoff top 12
1. Oregon
2. Georgia
3. Notre Dame
4. Ohio State
5. Tennessee
6. SMU
7. Texas
8. Penn State
9. Boise State
10. South Carolina
11. Indiana
12. Arizona State
First two out: Iowa State, BYU
Week 14 Heisman Ballot
1. Travis Hunter, Colorado DB/WR
2. Ashton Jeanty, Boise State RB
3. Shedeur Sanders, Colorado QB
4. Dillon Gabriel, Oregon QB
5. Cam Ward, Miami (Florida) QB
Ranking Championship Weekend games
1. Georgia vs. Texas
2. Penn State vs. Oregon
3. UNLV vs. Boise State
4. Clemson vs. SMU
5. Iowa State vs. Arizona State
6. Tulane vs. Army
7. Western Kentucky vs. Jacksonville State
8. Marshall vs. Louisiana
9. Ohio vs. Miami, Ohio
