Sports: Finally, A Real College Football Playoff.

For the first time in history College Football will have a true 12 team playoff. Of course there were a couple of controversies. The panel on ESPN felt like the first-round byes should be just given to the top 4 ranked teams, no matter if they were a conference champion or not. They pointed to Arizona St. and Boise St. getting 1st round byes instead of Notre Dame and most likely Texas. I disagree. After years of conference championships being pretty much meaningless, it is great to see them get rewarded with a bye. Notre Dame will just have to join a conference, poor babies. Picking SMU over Alabama to me was a no brainer. The always effervescent Nick Saban stated that Athletic Directors would start to schedule easier teams to get wins. Here was Alabama’s non-conference schedule, Western Kentucky, South Florida and Wisconsin. There are some real ball busters there. The fact remains Alabama lost 3 conference games and 2 of those to teams that had a combined conference record of 5-11. It wasn’t so much who Alabama beat, but who they lost to that kept them out of the playoffs. In previous years any time the committee has made a controversial pick or decision, they have come out smelling like a rose. Usually, the teams that they have put into the playoffs do pretty well and sometimes they become the national champion. We will see if SMU, Arizona St. and Boise St. do the committee proud. Now, let’s look at those first round games.

Three out of the four games will feature Big Ten teams. Now I am a Big Ten guy having graduated from Ohio State many moons ago, but I believe the Big Ten is the most overrated conference in football. These first-round games could go a long way to proving me right or might show that I am all wet, which won’t be the first time. Notre Dame will be a solid favorite against Indiana, which in my view should have been the team left off the bracket. I feel they won’t even give Notre Dame a game. However, if they do or somehow pull off the upset it will be a huge feather in the Big Ten’s cap and I hope the egg on my face will be scrambled. The Ohio State (Go Bucks) vs. Tennessee game is pretty much a toss-up. It should be a close game no matter who wins but if OSU loses a close one it won’t tarnish the Big Ten’s stature. Penn St. may not be as big a favorite as Notre Dame, but they are expected to beat SMU. James Franklin is one of the worst in game coaches in the country and if he lives up to his horrible play calling and strategy, SMU will have a real shot at this game. The Mustangs (I love that name) should come into the game with a chip on their shoulder and even though they lost the ACC Championship game, they made a great comeback, which should make them confident and ready to play. The Big Ten needs to win at least one of these 3 games to show that they deserve the rating that the committee bestowed upon them. The Big Ten is more likely to go 0-3 in this first round of the playoffs than 3-0. The remaining game is Clemson going to play Texas. Texas will be the solid favorite here but again Clemson is on a roll with a big Championship win.

Whatever happens I will follow it right along until the National Championship Game around the 3rd week of January. I will blog right before each round discussing the previous round and previewing the next round. The only team that will surprise me if they do not make it to the Championship game would be the Oregon Ducks. On the other side of the coin if Indiana wins one game, I will be shocked. The other 10 teams will not surprise me no matter what they do. Any one of the ten could make it to the title game. I love watching college football. I believe it is the most entertaining of the team sports. I am so happy that I am finally going to get to see a real college football playoff season. I do not think the system needs tweaked at all. Keep giving those byes to the conference champions. They deserve it, it is quite an accomplishment.