Alabama is struggling. I have my doubts they make the playoffs.
BYU is doing amazing. If they continue to get easy scores off turnovers around halftime it is going to be a fun season. Already bowl eligible.
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Wow, Oregon pulls out a close one v tOSU.
With the new playoff format and many highly ranked teams not looking so dominant, Iâd say the list of teams that could win the championship is pretty long right now.
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Absolutely. Teams are going to get banged up in the playoff. Though the other divisions have been doing this for decades.
So are the 4 byeâs given to 4 teams via some measurement of the top 12? Or are the 4 byes given to the winners of B10, B12, ACC, SEC?
Iâve answer my own question.
The 4 byes go to the winners of B10, B12, ACC, SEC since they will be the 4 highest ranked conference champs.
This sets up nice paths for Miami and Iowa State (or other ACC & B12 winners) to get byes, even though I do not think that either are as good as 2nd place B10 and SEC teams.
While likely, those conferences donât have to necessarily have the four highest ranked conference champs. If the Big 12 beats itself up and a 10-3 Iowa State wins (for example), there would be a good chance a 12-1 Boise State might be ranked higher. Or if a conference with a surefire playoff team such as Miami in the ACC gets upset in their conference championship game by a 10-2 Clemson. Miami might still be ranked higher than Boise, but it would be Boise vs Clemson to determine the bye.
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ok, itâs a subtlety but I get you.
The winners of the 4 highest ranked conferences are not necessarily the 4 highest ranked conference winners.
While I acknowledge that you are correct, and have outflanked me on the understanding of fine details (which is quite a feat since I am the usually the king of pedantic details) I pose the question that while this is possible, is it likely? I think not since each of the 4 power conferences have at least 2 teams ahead of Boise State.
For Boise State (BS) to get a bye, right, they would have to do something like a) sneak ahead of say Clemson in the polls, b) win their conference champion ship c) hope Clemson beats Miami in the ACC championship and d) hope Clemson does not leapfrog BS in the polls.
I donât think this could happen with the B10 and SEC. The top is just too powerful for a sub-BS team to win the conference.
I guess it is more likely in the ACC and B12 since those conferences are less strong at the top. Still a long shot, but I admit weirder things have happened.
I think that itâs likely that the 8 teams to play for the championships of the 4 major conferences will all be ranked higher than BS at the time, so the BS bye potential will be zilch.
Also, I think Indiana has a better chance at a bye than BS.
Donât sleep on the HOOSIERS!
Agreed. Big Ten and SEC are locks to a bye. Possibly the third or even fourth teams in that conference will be ranked over Boise.
And I agree itâs not likely, even this year when there are two paths to it (conference with one strong team that could get upset, conference with a bunch of mediocre teams). But it wouldnât take a ton falling the right way for it to happen either. I think a 11-2 Clemson, that drops another regular season game but then upsets Miami in the ACC title game, would be very interesting. There will probably be 2 loss teams in the SEC and Big Ten who donât even get into the Playoff, so Iâd guess that scenario would have Clemson no higher than #9 or so.
And another thought⌠Who does the ranking? Itâs not the AP poll is it? Can I assume itâs an NCAA committee? [ETA] Confirmed: Yes itâs an NCAA CFP committee.[/ETA]
If it is, I see lots of laughs coming from the a situation that you describe.
Letâs say a 14th (in the AP poll) Clemson beats Miami and BS is undefeated and ranked quite high, like 8th in the AP. Donât you think that a committee would move Clemson over BS? I do.
Itâs not college football if there are no items we can disagree about.
I also think that because ND cannot earn a bye as an independent, ND will eventually officially join the ACC.
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Well, they might prefer an extra home game over a neutral-site game that could knock them out of the playoff when they were essentially in.
I see the Conference Championship games as causing a lot of chaos. Without them, the top two teams in a Power 4 conference are a lock. With them, one might get passed over when they lose.
Then again, the second-place team beating the first place team might result in THREE teams locked. Oh, what to do, wondered the conference commissionersâŚ
Maybe. What does the committee do with a 10-2 Georgia, with losses to potential playoff teams Alabama and Texas, but who thumped Clemson earlier in the year? If the season progresses relatively close to chalk from here on out (ha!), then the Big Ten likely has 3 teams (OSU, PSU, Oregon) and the SEC has 3-5. Clemson almost certainly has to be ranked below all of those teams.
After Week 7:
Three Big 10 (three in the top 11)
Three SEC (five in the top 11)
One ACC (two in top 11)
One Big 12 (one in the top 11)
Highest not Power 4 team/champion (BSU at the moment â fixed)
Three other highest-ranked
ND at #12 (AP) still awaiting the eventual fallout of SEC teams, has just picked up two Top 25 opponents.
.
I already said " Donât sleep on the H00SIERS!"
If itâs anything like the basketball selection committee, what they do is self serving, dollar oriented, and infuriating.
Iâm doing the farfurgnuttin thing thing with consecutive posts, but
BYU is in the Big12, and it looks, at the moment, like they will have a B12 championship matchup with Iowa State in Texas on Dec 7th, a day that will live in infirmary. The winner will be ranked higher than Boise State.
Whoops!
Just a point of clarification. The CFP is not part of the NCAA. They are something made up by the various conferences and independent FBS schools. If they wanted to be officially a part of the NCAA they would be required to invite every conference champion Power 4 and Group of 5. I believe that happens in the FCS tournament.
And I believe the rules do state that the top 4 conference champs get the byes so it is possible that many/most/all of the at large teams plus 5th conference champ could be ranked higher than one of the teams that gets a bye.
Something very interesting I read recently is that it is possible that Army and Navy could play 2 weeks in a row. They are both currently in the race to make the AAC championship game which is played on Dec 7 while the Army/Navy game is scheduled for Dec 14.