College Football Thoughts

A few thoughts and observations about the state of college football after Saturday's great slate of games.

Here's how I'd rank the current Top 4 Playoff teams:

1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Michigan
4. TCU 

If TCU remains unbeaten and is the Big 12 champ - they have to be in. Michigan and Ohio State play each other so one of them will be at least a one-loss team come playoff time. If The SEC comes down to LSU (big win over Alabama Saturday) vs Georgia and LSU wins - does that slot Georgia as the top one-loss team in the country over the loser of Michigan/Ohio State? Does a 2-loss LSU make the playoffs as the SEC champ? Things are going to get interesting.

Notre Dame had a wire-to-wire beatdown of Clemson on Saturday which should eliminate the ACC from the playoffs. Funny but now both the Big 10 and the SEC are rooting for the Fighting Irish. Ohio State's biggest non-conference win is against Notre Dame and they need that to pad the resume. The Irish basically single-handedly eliminated the ACC (wins over Clemson, Syracuse, and North Carolina). If they win out - including the regular season ending game vs USC - they could also help eliminate the Pac 12 from the playoffs. Oregon's crushing loss to Georgia to start the season will be held against them as a one-loss team and USC is the next best option for the Pac 12.  But not if they lose to Notre Dame.

(As an aside - I bet Notre Dame's season over total of 8.5 wins so I'll be rooting for them to win their last 3 games to finish 9-3.)

This past Saturday's great slate is the best advertisement for on campus playoff games when the playoffs get expanded to 12 teams.