2016 NCAA College Football

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

It's a mess which is what makes college football so great. And it will probably sort itself out by the end of the season but right now:

Alabama is the only lock and stays at #1
I can't see Clemson falling out of the top four but they may drop slightly.
Oklahoma has two losses, it could be tough for the committee to put them in as the Big 12 champion when there are one loss teams out there. The Big 12 is probably on the outside looking in right now.
Washington (I think?) is still in control of their destiny in the PAC12. If they run the table and win the league then it's hard not to see them in the top four and going to the playoffs. Regardless of what anyone thinks.
I'm not sure the SEC could make an arguement for a second team now either, everyone but Bama has at least two losses.
Wisconsin could win the Bug 10 and be a two loss team. That would be ugly for the committee as potentially you would have Michigan or Ohio State with only one loss but how do they pick a team that didn't even win their division over a conference champion.
I would say Louisville and the ACC may have the best shot at being a second team to qualify from a conference.

What a mess. It's awesome.

As long as they beat ASU and Wash.St....then yes.

If they lose to Wash. St. they are out. If Wash. St. wins out then they win that division no matter what.

[IceMan]

New Top 4

1. Bama
2. Ohio State
3. Michigan
4. Clemson

Louisville and Washington round out the top 6.

I guess not much changed even with Clemson and Michigan losing last week. It looks like the winner of the OSU UM game will make the playoffs with Louisville still in the mix for the 4th spot.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

I'm actually ok with that.

But if they are gonna put Ohio and Mich 2/3 then they have to put the winner in the playoff regardless of conference title. You can't drop the 2 seed out of a playoff spot in the final ranking when they didn't even play. If the week before the conference championship one of those two are in, no result in the B10 game should change that.

Otherwise what's the point of the committee and rankings? Just declare 4 of the power 5 conference champions will be voted in and no one else is in consideration.

[Lubicon]

In the past 40 some years only one team with two losses has been national champion, and it would be pretty ballsy of the committee to invite a 2 loss team into the playoffs over a team with only one loss. But there are some interesting scenarios that could play out:

• Washington loses to Washington State. Washington State or Colorado coule conceivably win the PAC 12 as a two loss team
• Penn State wins out (and wins their division in the process), then lsoes to Wisconsin in the Big 10. That would leave the Big 10 with a 2 loss Champion as well.
• Oklahoma wins the Big 12 and is a two loss team.

You now have three of the Power 5 conference champions with two losses. The SEC doesn't seem to have anyone worthy of a 2nd spot in the playoff. The winner of Michigan/Ohio State would have a single loss and would likely go to the playoff but would do so ahead of the conference champion. Unless you invite the champion to the playoff with two losses. The loser of this game is done.
Louisville would look pretty good as a pick with only a single loss but their strength of schedule is also not as strong as other contenders. If West Virginia runs the table and wins the Big 12 they would almost have to be invited as a one loss team.

I still think Ohio State is the best of the rest by a long shot and think the committee is looking for some way to get them in provided they keep winning.

If the Big 12, Pac 12, and Big 10 all had 2 loss champions the committee pretty much has to pick one (or more) of them to go to the playoff. My money would be on Wisconsin in this scenario as it would allow Ohio State to go as well without too much controversy.

[ResAlien]

Louisville getting destroyed by Houston, down 31-0 and it's not even halftime.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Louisville getting destroyed by Houston, down 31-0 and it's not even halftime.

yeah this is a remarkable choke job by Louisville....again.

Last i looked they were 16.5 pt favorites as well.

[CofR]

I saw Louisville at -17 this afternoon

[nik-]

.. yeeaaah, about that Lamar Jackson Heisman

[transplant99]

This is pretty cool.

Mike Gillespie ✔ @MikeABCColumbia
.@SCStateAthletic RB Joe Thomas Sr. made history today. At age 55, he's the oldest man to ever play in a Division I football game.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/1...ate-university

[ResAlien]

This freshman QB for USC seems pretty good. Other than an expected loss to Alabama how did they manage to lose two more games?

[nik-]

Excited for this Iron Bowl next week, but also a little nervous. Auburn can play massive spoiler at Bryant Denny.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

This freshman QB for USC seems pretty good. Other than an expected loss to Alabama how did they manage to lose two more games?

Darnold didnt start the first 3 games...its been lights out ever since he got the reigns.

Also the defense is vastly improved from earlier in the year.

Should be a real good team moving forward and into next year.

[FireGilbert]

USC looks great and should be the favourite to win the Pac-12 next season. Their only losses this year were to #1 Alabama, #12 Utah and #24 Stanford.

It will be interesting to see the rankings with Ohio State barely squeaking by the Spartans. They could be on the outside looking in after big wins by Clemson and Washington. The weather did play a part in that game though. Do they take that into account when doing the rankings? Obviously Big 10 games in November will be lower scoring and closer than SEC, ACC or PAC-12 games in November.

[Lubicon]

So not a lot of change after the weekend other than Louisville and Washington State basically eliminated themselves from possible playoff contention by losing.

Provided everyone wins out (not gauranteed by any means) I think we know the following for sure:

1. Alabama and Clemson are locks for the playoffs.

That's it, and that leaves two spots up for grabs and there are some very interesting situations that could unfold:

the winner of Michigan/Ohio State will be the only other team in the country to finish with only one loss. Michigan can theoretically win the Big 12 and would be a lock for the playoffs if they do. If they lose they are done.

Ohio State looks fantastic but for them to make it they need to win against Michigan and then hope the committee thinks they are better than BOTH Oklahoma (should they win the Big 12) AND Washington (should they win the PAC 12). Washington would only have a single loss if they win the conference so how do you put a two loss team ahead of them?

Wisconsin and Penn State (assuming they both win this weekend) are hoping Ohio State blasts Michigan as they would then play for the Big 12 championship. The winner will still be a two loss team but there's no way Ohio State can go to the playoff at the expense of the team that won the same conference.

Really the Big 12 and PAC 12 are on the outside looking in right now as only one of them will even have a chance and to do that they need to be ranked above Ohio State.

If Florida somehow beats Alabama to win the SEC then it really get's fun.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

The committee is such an unknown.

Depending on which site I'm reading the general idea seems to be that the Buckeyes will not get in at the expense of the B10 champ, even if everyone thinks (knows) they are better. It just wouldn't look good.

Some sportswriters seem to think that the only way ohio gets in w/o being b10 champs is if they take two B10 teams to the playoff, which seems highly unlikely unless several other teams all lose in their final game or in the conference championship. And even if two B10 teams get in, I think they'll rank OSU 4th and put Wisc 3rd, which is too bad because I think Bama/OSU is the best NC game matchup available. It would suck if they were only a semi.

The more I read, the more I think OU has no chance unless all hell breaks loose. Their strength of schedule sucks.

I think Bama beats Wash by 40 pts if that ends up being the 1/4 matchup.

Assuming OSU beats Mich, which they should since the Wolverines will be playing their backup QB, I'd have my top 4 as Bama, OSU, Clem and Wash.

Hopefully MSU does us all a favor and eliminates Penn State this weekend.

[ResAlien]

Having watched his struggles against Indi-frikkin-ana I think Michigan might be better off playing Jabrill in the wildcat all game. O'Korn is atrocious. I want to be positive and think they stand a chance against ohio state but on the road with O'Korn at the helm? There will be 11 guys in the box (just like at your mother's house Trebek!) and I didn't see anything that makes me think O'Korn could hit open receivers.

Smith is going to need to channel Herschel Walker, that's Michigan's best chance. At least their defence is solid, that should keep them in the game.

[IceMan]

Notre Dame to appeal NCAA ruling to forfeit wins

Why couldn't they forfeit this season?

Well, this does seem excessive considering all the other crap that has been occurring at other schools across the country. What's happening with North Carolina these days? Systemic fraudulent classes by their Athletic Department involving over 3,100 students over 18 years and have yet to hear anything from the NCAA.

The NCAA has shown time and time again they let the worst offenders off the hook (besides USC lol) who actually commit violations for a competitive advantage but hammer anyone who tries to "do the right thing" being strict and self-reporting honestly. In this case, ND didn't just self-report they conducted a LUDICROUS investigation and review of electronic documents, the kind of which has NEVER been done in the history of collegiate academics. This probe was not only unnecessary, it was illogical.

The "Frozen 5" as they were nicknamed (Davaris Daniels, Eilar Hardy, Kendall Moore, Ishaq Williams and KeiVarae Russell) played in the 2012 season and 2013 season. The 2014 season is when they were all suspended in Fall camp when the University found out what was going on. They then decided to launch their own multi-layer investigation and later reported their findings to the NCAA. I guess they should have kept their mouths shut and just gave the dummies who plagiarized their papers zeros and moved on.

Now 21 wins are possibly going to be forfeited because of a few morons. Notre Dame was 1st in all time winning percentage before the start of the season and now after this I believe are 6th.

Oh well, all you can do is laugh at this point if you're an Irish fan. It's been a brutal year and hopefully this is the last straw for the AD to let Kelly go and start fresh with someone else.

I did see this on twitter and had a good chuckle.

Spoiler!

[IceMan]

Originally Posted by nik-

Excited for this Iron Bowl next week, but also a little nervous. Auburn can play massive spoiler at Bryant Denny.

I think this is going to be their toughest remaining game left of the season. If they get by Auburn (which they should), they'll play Florida in the SEC Championship game, potentially Washington in the playoff which will be MSU 2.0 and then Clemson or OSU/UM in the big game.

I don't see how the Tide are not National Champs again. Just too damn good.

[nik-]

It's going to be a real test for sure, but I'm more worried about the Michigan/OSU matchup than Auburn.

It's been a crazy year. This is as dominant as I can remember them, which is interesting because they've definitely had "better" teams. Jalen Hurts has been a revelation obviously, it's so odd having anything better than a competent game manager/hip turner as QB. I ... I think I like it.

[IceMan]

^^^ I'm actually happy that Hurts won the starting job over Blake Barnett.

Blake was an ND commit and then bolted for Alabama so it was nice to see Hurts beat him out in the USC game and has never looked back. Pretty impressive for a kid who turned 18 a few weeks before the season started.

That's what makes that team scary though because like you said, it seems like under Saban, all they've had are game managers and they still dominate everyone. Now they have an athlete back there who has a huge arm and can also run when needed. I would like it too if I were fan.