NCAA Football What If

[WuDrWu]

North Carolina beats Clemson? Not exactly impossible

Michigan State beats Iowa? More than likely.

Stanford beats Notre Dame? Unlikely but hardly out of the question.

OSU beats OU? Highly probable given recent games and Mayfield's injury.

Florida beats Alabama (or Auburn does before Florida gets a chance)? Again, not likely but not like totally crazy.


Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State, North Carolina, Clemson, Florida, Oklahoma State, Baylor all with 1 loss. Who do you take?

[ShockdaWorld]

Ummmm....Missouri State?

[ShockTalk]

North Carolina beats Clemson? Not exactly impossible

Michigan State beats Iowa? More than likely.

Stanford beats Notre Dame? Unlikely but hardly out of the question.

OSU beats OU? Highly probable given recent games and Mayfield's injury.

Florida beats Alabama (or Auburn does before Florida gets a chance)? Again, not likely but not like totally crazy.


Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State, North Carolina, Clemson, Florida, Oklahoma State, Baylor all with 1 loss. Who do you take?

Not a big football fan (strange, I know), but the "playoff" system they set up was flawed from the beginning. First, you have five "major" conferences. Somebody's going to get left out (see last year). You also have indie Notre Dame and the possibility of an outsider, or, more likely, a second deserving team from a P5 conference.

Now, a lot of people are wondering how long until they expand the bracket and about the only thing I've heard is to 8 teams. Well, I think that's about as bad as 4. Doc, you set up the perfect storm, and it could happen, but not likely, at least not very often. Having 3 post season games in football is too many, at least where you may have a clear 1 or 2 top teams. I acknowledge that scenario may not happen this year, but having "the top team" play 2 games prior to a championship game is just more opportunity for injuries to be the key factor in deciding the champion.

You have to go through the regular season to determine some sort of ranking, so injuries, key or not, are going to happen. That's just part of it.

I think a 6 team bracket would be adequate. Seldom, (maybe this year is different) that a #7 or #8 team is clearly as good as the top 2. Number 7 or 8 not getting in seems less of a faux par than leaving out number 5. As arbitrary as it may be, the top 2 get a bye. Then, #1 plays the winner of the 4/5 game and #2 the winner of the 3/6 game. There should be some sort of benefit for a team(s) that, at the end of the season, may have earned those top spots.

[shoxlax]

North Carolina beats Clemson? Not exactly impossible

Michigan State beats Iowa? More than likely.

Stanford beats Notre Dame? Unlikely but hardly out of the question.

OSU beats OU? Highly probable given recent games and Mayfield's injury.

Florida beats Alabama (or Auburn does before Florida gets a chance)? Again, not likely but not like totally crazy.


Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State, North Carolina, Clemson, Florida, Oklahoma State, Baylor all with 1 loss. Who do you take?

Not to hijack the thread but didn't OUs offense without Mayfield remind you of another team we love?

Oh and I would take Navy

[Rlh04d]

Not a big football fan (strange, I know), but the "playoff" system they set up was flawed from the beginning. First, you have five "major" conferences. Somebody's going to get left out (see last year). You also have indie Notre Dame and the possibility of an outsider, or, more likely, a second deserving team from a P5 conference.

Now, a lot of people are wondering how long until they expand the bracket and about the only thing I've heard is to 8 teams. Well, I think that's about as bad as 4. Doc, you set up the perfect storm, and it could happen, but not likely, at least not very often. Having 3 post season games in football is too many, at least where you may have a clear 1 or 2 top teams. I acknowledge that scenario may not happen this year, but having "the top team" play 2 games prior to a championship game is just more opportunity for injuries to be the key factor in deciding the champion.

You have to go through the regular season to determine some sort of ranking, so injuries, key or not, are going to happen. That's just part of it.

I think a 6 team bracket would be adequate. Seldom, (maybe this year is different) that a #7 or #8 team is clearly as good as the top 2. Number 7 or 8 not getting in seems less of a faux par than leaving out number 5. As arbitrary as it may be, the top 2 get a bye. Then, #1 plays the winner of the 4/5 game and #2 the winner of the 3/6 game. There should be some sort of benefit for a team(s) that, at the end of the season, may have earned those top spots.

I'd still like to see an 8 team bracket, with the five conference champs, one guaranteed spot for a non-P5 team, and two at-large squads. I agree that the 7/8 spots would probably be a little useless, but I have one point for why they'd need to be included: SOS.

For one thing, all the talk about what team is best is pretty well nonsense. The only thing the college football season proves is what team is best in their conference. Beyond that, the nonconference season is too short and with too little punishment for scheduling cream-puffs (though the SEC pretty well choked on them this week).

The other two spots would be there to emphasize non-conference scheduling (and fit in Notre Dame, when they're good enough).

[Rlh04d]

North Carolina beats Clemson? Not exactly impossible

Both are probably out.

Michigan State beats Iowa? More than likely.

Winner makes the playoff.

Stanford beats Notre Dame? Unlikely but hardly out of the question.

Notre Dame's on the bubble for making the playoff even with a win.

OSU beats OU? Highly probable given recent games and Mayfield's injury.

Oklahoma's also on the bubble even with a win.

Florida beats Alabama (or Auburn does before Florida gets a chance)? Again, not likely but not like totally crazy.

Lane Kiffin is fired on the field after Nick Saban punches him out, because the only way Florida wins that game is if Alabama doesn't score a point, or Florida returns INTs for touchdowns. Florida probably won't score a point on Bama's defense. They probably won't even cross midfield without turnovers or special teams returns.

Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State, North Carolina, Clemson, Florida, Oklahoma State, Baylor all with 1 loss. Who do you take?

Two easy ones:
Michigan State without a doubt, because they'd have beat Ohio State and Iowa. Plus that Oregon win is finally looking good again to give them a real non-con win.
Florida, because they would have beat Florida State and Alabama.

The other two spots would be harder. North Carolina, Baylor, Ohio State, and OK State all have the same problem: **** non-con SOS. Clemson would have a problem with being chosen over a UNC team that just beat them, even though their resume would be a lot stronger with the Notre Dame/FSU wins. I'd say Clemson and Baylor.

[wufan]

8 team playoff is necessary. Four teams was flawed, but it was a start to sing it the right way.

[wusphlash]

North Carolina beats Clemson? Not exactly impossible

Michigan State beats Iowa? More than likely.

Stanford beats Notre Dame? Unlikely but hardly out of the question.

OSU beats OU? Highly probable given recent games and Mayfield's injury.

Florida beats Alabama (or Auburn does before Florida gets a chance)? Again, not likely but not like totally crazy.


Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State, North Carolina, Clemson, Florida, Oklahoma State, Baylor all with 1 loss. Who do you take?

Clemson struggled with South Carolina. Still unbeaten but certainly vulnerable.

Michigan State and Iowa took care of business so their match up is still on.

Stanford knocked Notre Dame out so they'll just have to be happy with their NBC money.

OU crushes the non-tackling Cowboys.

Alabama takes care of business but Florida does not.

Baylor loses to TCU.

Going with Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma and Michigan State. Ohio State first team out. PAC-12 left out this year.

[wusphlash]

Should 1 loss Iowa be incurred in Final 4?

[Rlh04d]

Should 1 loss Iowa be incurred in Final 4?

Iowa's schedule was awful. They play in one of the worst divisions in college football, and had the most ridiculous cross-over opponents from the other B10 division (Indiana and Maryland, combined 3-13 in conference).

They'll get more respect for staying with Michigan St than they would otherwise, but they'll likely drop below Stanford and Ohio St, maybe even FSU and ND. Ultimately they have three wins over teams with a winning record. FSU has five, Stanford has seven, Ohio St has four, and Notre Dame has four.

It'll be interesting to see if they fall past Ohio St, though, since that determines the Rose Bowl. Whichever team is ranked higher plays Stanford there, whichever is lower will play against Notre Dame in the Fiesta or FSU in the Peach. I think the Fiesta has first choice, so probably ND, leaving FSU with Houston as the highest G5 champ.

[ShockTalk]

Iowa's schedule was awful. They play in one of the worst divisions in college football, and had the most ridiculous cross-over opponents from the other B10 division (Indiana and Maryland, combined 3-13 in conference).

They'll get more respect for staying with Michigan St than they would otherwise, but they'll likely drop below Stanford and Ohio St, maybe even FSU and ND. Ultimately they have three wins over teams with a winning record. FSU has five, Stanford has seven, Ohio St has four, and Notre Dame has four.

It'll be interesting to see if they fall past Ohio St, though, since that determines the Rose Bowl. Whichever team is ranked higher plays Stanford there, whichever is lower will play against Notre Dame in the Fiesta or FSU in the Peach. I think the Fiesta has first choice, so probably ND, leaving FSU with Houston as the highest G5 champ.

I heard, before Iowa even played Sparty, that the Rose Bowl said that they could and would pass on Iowa for Ohio St. We'll see now that Iowa played pretty well.

[Rlh04d]

I heard, before Iowa even played Sparty, that the Rose Bowl said that they could and would pass on Iowa for Ohio St. We'll see now that Iowa played pretty well.

Is that even allowed? I thought they would have to take the highest ranked. Maybe that was just a poor assumption of common sense.

[SHOXAAC]

Is that even allowed? I thought they would have to take the highest ranked. Maybe that was just a poor assumption of common sense.

Kind of like the terrorist thing, huh.

You know I'm funnin you. This is the third thread I have resonded to you. I love SN.

[shocka khan]

I know they're not in the playoffs, but I'm very proud of our Houston Cougars, who finished up a 12-1 season by defeating Temple by about 13 points.

They got the same kind of jobbing from the pollsters as we get in basketball, as they were 19th before the win, and moved up a whole 1 spot to 18th after. They're definitely not a playoff team, but they beat Memphis State (one loss) Navy (1 or 2 losses) and Temple to win the conference. The same Temple who played Notre Dame to within 4 points at home. I think they should have been rated closer to 10th.

Looking forward to seeing the Peach Bowl and UH / Florida State on December 31.

[wu_shizzle]

I know they're not in the playoffs, but I'm very proud of our Houston Cougars, who finished up a 12-1 season by defeating Temple by about 13 points.

They got the same kind of jobbing from the pollsters as we get in basketball, as they were 19th before the win, and moved up a whole 1 spot to 18th after. They're definitely not a playoff team, but they beat Memphis State (one loss) Navy (1 or 2 losses) and Temple to win the conference. The same Temple who played Notre Dame to within 4 points at home. I think they should have been rated closer to 10th.

Looking forward to seeing the Peach Bowl and UH / Florida State on December 31.

How did you lose to UCONN?