College football 2016 Week 14/championship week running thread

Interesting. Can't really argue against a hunch.

I think the committee has several options if it wants to piss off a large amount of people. That would certainly be one.

 

Yes, I think it has. Crushed the No. 8 team, 12-1 overall, P5 conference champ. Enjoy the Citrus Bowl, Michigan.

 

LOL. They won't make the playoff, but they won't be slumming it in Orlando either.

 

Where does Big Ten No. 4 play, if No. 1 goes to the playoffs? Or does the regular-season matter, until someone decides it doesn't?

 

Most everything I've seen projected has Michigan in the Orange Bowl against Louisville or FSU, with the Wisconsin-PSU loser to the Cotton against Western Mich.

 

Penn State is your enemy now.

 

Copied and pasted from Wikipedia, for the good of the order.

In the two out of three years when a given New Year's Six bowl is not part of the playoff bracket, the highest-ranked non-playoff teams from the following conferences or groups are selected as follows:[38][39]

• Rose Bowl — Big Ten #1 vs. Pac-12 #1
• Sugar Bowl — SEC #1 vs. Big 12 #1
• Orange Bowl — ACC #1 vs. SEC #2, Big Ten #2, or Notre Dame
• Cotton Bowl — at-large or "Group of Five" (committee selection)
• Fiesta Bowl — at-large or "Group of Five" (committee selection)
• Peach Bowl — at-large or "Group of Five" (committee selection)
• The highest-ranked champion from the "Group of Five" conferences (The American, C-USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt) is guaranteed a berth if the group's top team is not in the playoff.[38][39]
• The remaining five at-large bids are determined by committee rankings.[38][39]
• If the Big Ten or SEC champion is available for a non-playoff bowl in a year when the Rose and Sugar Bowls are hosting semifinals, that team appears in either the Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, or Peach Bowl, but not the Orange Bowl.[39]
• In the Orange Bowl, the SEC and Big Ten are guaranteed at least three appearances during the eight non-playoff years, while Notre Dame can only appear a maximum of twice.[40]
• In non-playoff years, if the Orange Bowl matchup creates a regular-season rematch for the ACC representative, the bowl may choose to "skip over" the prescribed opponent from the SEC/Big Ten/Notre Dame group and select the next highest-ranked team from the group. The team that was rejected would be placed in one of the three at-large bowls, if it meets ranking standards.[41]
• In years when the Orange Bowl is a national semifinal, the ACC champion plays in the Fiesta or Peach Bowls if it is not selected for the playoff.[42]
• In choosing the pairings for the four non-playoff bowls, the committee tries to create "the most compelling matchups possible", while taking into account geography and team rematches from both the regular season and recent bowls.[38][43]
  
  So, if the B1G champion doesn't get into the playoff, they'd play in the Rose, ostensibly against the Buffs. Then the Orange Bowl steps up, and everyone seems to think they'd be more interested in Michigan than the title game loser, though that team is very likely Cotton Bowl fodder to face Western.

 

It won't happen, but matching up Harbaugh and Fleck in the Cotton Bowl would be....hysterically awesome. As an alum of WMU, just the potential fun of pretending like we're on the same athletic plane as U of M....strictly to piss off my Walmart Wolverine friends.....would be priceless...

 

Michigan is not playing in the Citrus Bowl or the Cotton Bowl.

 

Dream crusher....

 

Michigan will be playing Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl.

 

It can be pointless. BUT by definition a team that loses is going to drop in the polls. And you shouldn't be penalized for beating someone. So if you beat No. 9, you should be able to say you beat a "top 10" team (even though your beating them caused them to drop to No.13). The exception, of course, is the team that falls off the cliff (Notre Dame, etc.).

I remember that feeling, and it's bullshit. I spent most of the 90s rooting for a team (Tennessee) that would fuck up early, have nothing to play for, and then steamroll everyone else en route to a 10-1 or 10-2 season entering bowl season. "We're playing the best right now!" the fans would crow. But you lost when it mattered and won when it didn't. Ergo, if it mattered again you'd probably lose.