College football week 14 thread: The Greatest Story Ever Toad

[Spartan Squad]

You misspelled refreshing

 

[MileHigh]

Officials:

Peach (Georgia-Ohio State): Pac-12
Fiesta (Michigan-TCU): SEC

National championship: ACC

 

[micropolitan guy]

Officials:

Peach (Georgia-Ohio State): Pac-12
Fiesta (Michigan-TCU): SEC

National championship: ACC

WTF are Pac-12 officials doing anywhere close to that game? They should be consigned to MAC-Sun Belt matchups.

 

[rtse11]

WTF are Pac-12 officials doing anywhere close to that game? They should be consigned to MAC-Sun Belt matchups.

Hey now, the MAC has enuf problems

 

[Vombatus]

Well, today shows how much I pay attention to late night TV.

Carson was King. End of story. All else are poor imitators.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Is TCU the only team in CFP rankings history not to drop a single place in the rankings after losing?

No. The eighth by my count. The previous seven:
2020 Florida (7th)
2020 Northwestern (14th)
2019 Baylor (7th)
2019 Wisconsin (8th)
2018 Utah (17th)
2015 UNC (10th)
2014 Missouri (16th)

 

[MileHigh]

WTF are Pac-12 officials doing anywhere close to that game? They should be consigned to MAC-Sun Belt matchups.

Never fear. They are also on the Music City, Liberty Dukes Mayo, First Responder and Quick Lane bowls.

 

[MileHigh]

This is what your playoff bracket would look like this year:

Byes:

1. Georgia vs. Kansas State-Tennessee at Sugar Bowl
2. Michigan vs. USC-Alabama at Granddaddy/sunset
3. Clemson vs. Penn State-Ohio State at Orange Bowl
4. Utah vs. Tulane-TCU at Cotton Bowl

12. Tulane at 5. TCU
11. Penn State at 6. Ohio State
10. USC at. 7. Alabama
9. Kansas State at 8. Tennessee

Semifinals at Peach and Fiesta

 

[dixiehack]

I assume they ranked Clemson ahead of K State and Utah as a way to (unnecessarily IMO) shore up the argument for taking TCU (i.e. 2 losses are better than 3). But any objective observer would tell you that the ACC was the weakest of the top five conferences by far and Clemson has a paper-thin resume. They are simply going to have to do better with the seedings in the 12-team era.

 

[Batman]

Some quick thoughts on bowl matchups:

• Tennessee vs. Clemson seems like a very appropriate uniform match-up for the Orange Bowl
• We've got SMU vs. BYU in the ABQ for this year's Acronym Bowl
• I know they lost a lot from last year, and going 9-3 is nothing to be ashamed of, but Cincinnati going from the Playoff to the curtain-jerker Fenway Bowl on Dec. 17 is a jarring sight

• Rice (5-7) vs. Southern Miss (6-6) in the LendingTree Bowl at 4:45 p.m. on Dec. 17 is probably the most accurate depiction of the first weekend of bowl season I could ever hope to come up with
• How San Diego State wound up 7-5 and playing in a halfway decent bowl game (Hawaii Bowl vs. Middle Tennessee) is beyond me. That team sucked for the first half of the season
• Does the winner of the Birmingham Bowl between Coastal Carolina and East Carolina get to proclaim themselves the king of the Carolina directional schools?
• The Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix, with one-time Top 20 teams Wisconsin (6-6) and Oklahoma State (7-5), is the epitome of "Why do we have to play this game?"

• Kansas vs. Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl only came about because Missouri reportedly refused to play Kansas in the same game.
• Oregon vs. North Carolina in the Holiday Bowl could be a fun game, depending on who plays and if both teams can get their shirt together.
• Remember when Syracuse was a spunky 6-0 and was leading Clemson on the road at halftime? Yeah ... they finished 7-5 and wound up playing Minnesota in the Pinstripe Bowl.

• Oklahoma-Florida State was the national championship game in 2000, and could have been a Playoff game as recently as seven or eight years ago. Now it's the Cheez-It Bowl. Yikes.
• Maryland vs. N.C. State in a postseason game in Charlotte should be reserved for the ACC basketball tournament, not a college football bowl game.
• Notre Dame vs. South Carolina in the Gator Bowl might be a great game. Probably be better if Notre Dame's quarterback hadn't just peaced out, though.

• Gotta wonder what Alabama team will show up for the Sugar Bowl. One who has a bunch of players who opted out and the rest have the motivation of a piece of cheese? Or one that's reasonably competent. If K-State brings its full lineup that could be an upset special.
• LSU vs. Purdue in the Citrus Bowl, in a match-up of conference runners-up, is the "You were ThisClose" Bowl.

 

[tapintoamerica]

I assume they ranked Clemson ahead of K State and Utah as a way to (unnecessarily IMO) shore up the argument for taking TCU (i.e. 2 losses are better than 3). But any objective observer would tell you that the ACC was the weakest of the top five conferences by far and Clemson has a paper-thin resume. They are simply going to have to do better with the seedings in the 12-team era.

You are spot on. The job is gonna get a lot harder. Right now, the hardest part about it is the absurdly frequent travel. They have one decision to make -- at most -- per year in the four-team format. In the future, they'll have to make a lot of calls.

 

[BTExpress]

Expecting at least two WRs to opt out, and with Joe Overthrow at QB, it could get ugly.

Defense shouldn't have any opt outs, since they already used their opt out for the South Carolina game.