The gods of Greek mythology lived on Mount Olympus. I don’t know upon which mountain the “football gods” reside, but they were active last weekend. It seems to me that in every football season, there is one weekend where lots of “surprising stuff” goes down in college football and then about a month later, the focus of football craziness is on the NFL. Well, unless those football gods have some sort of “grand crescendo” in store for us in December, we got our quota of craziness last week.
Let me focus today on college football from last weekend. Alabama lost its third game of the year to Oklahoma 24-3. That is unusual in itself, but the way the Tide lost was more unusual. Alabama kicked a field goal to lead 3-0 at the end of the first quarter; they were shut out by the Sooners – – a 14-point underdog by the way – – from there on out. So, is there still room in the expanded CFP for an Alabama team with 3 losses including this embarrassing one?
Penn St. was playing a decidedly inferior opponent in Minnesota, a team that brought 4 losses with them to the kickoff and was a 12.5-point underdog. The Nittany Lions used a fake punt to convert a fourth-down situation allowing them to hold on and beat Minnesota 26-25. The question in the air now is simple:
- Is Penn St. really a Top 10 team that belongs in the CFP or is it the single most overrated team in the country and belongs in the Poulan Weedeater Bowl?
SMU locked in their participation in the ACC Championship Game last weekend. There had to be a round of chortling amongst the football gods as they penciled the Mustangs into that game slot since SMU is in Dallas TX which is nowhere near the “Atlantic coast”.
Ohio St. embarrassed Indiana last weekend giving the Hoosiers their first loss of the year. Usually, losing to the team ranked #2 in the country is to be expected but this loss shines a light on the Indiana schedule for 2024 and let’s just be polite here and say it was not the toughest schedule in its time zone. Next week, Indiana – – is it really a Top Ten team? – – plays Purdue – – it really is a SHOE Team – – and Indiana will finish 11-1 against its patty-cake schedule. Let the CFP debate begin…
Notre Dame beat previously unbeaten Army handily last weekend.
- Was Army overrated as an unbeaten team?
- Has Notre Dame beaten anyone noteworthy since the opening game of the year against Texas A&M?
- [Aside: Yes, Army was overrated; and no, Notre Dame’s schedule has been unimpressive.]
Speaking obliquely of Texas A&M, the Aggies began the weekend as a solid SEC candidate for the CFP with a good shot at being in the SEC Championship Game. Yes, they were on the road against Auburn but the Tigers had already lost 5 games in 2024. The game went to 4 OT periods and Auburn won the game outright. Now, the Aggies have 3 losses …
Florida was a 13.5-point underdog at home against Ole Miss who was on the periphery of a CFP invitation. Florida won the game outright gaining bowl-eligibility for the Gators and ending any real hopes that folks in Jackson, MI might have had for the Rebels’ participation in the CFP.
BYU lost for the second week in a row falling to Arizona St. and seemingly taking itself out of the picture for the Big-12 title game – – except Kansas also upset Colorado meaning that there are 4 teams in the Big-12 at the moment with 2 conference losses. Here is the headline from a report at CBSSports.com regarding the current Big-12 standings with one week left to play in the regular season:
In zaniest tiebreaker case we’ve seen yet, Big 12 says 256 different scenarios in play to decide title game
And last weekend might just have been setting the table for the upcoming final weekend of the season with more than a dozen big-time rivalry games on the schedule such as:
- Indiana Purdue
- Notre Dame/USC
- Texas/Texas A&M
- Alabama/Auburn
- Ole Miss/Mississippi St.
- Ohio St./ Michigan
- Georgia/Georgia Tech
- Clemson/South Carolina
- Florida/Florida St.
- Tennessee/Vandy
- Va Tech/Virginia
- Arizona/Arizona St.
- Louisville/Kentucky – – a carryover from the basketball rivalry
- Washington/Oregon – – AND – –
- UTEP/New Mexico St.
That was just the craziness associated with college football last weekend; tomorrow I shall take a look at NFL oddities from the same time frame. So, I’ll close today with an observation by the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius:
“Begin – to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
I think this is god’s (?) way, or someone more powerful than I, telling the SEC and The “so-called” Big to stuff it…collegiate football is dead. I’m not saying it isn’t still exciting etc. etc. but the loss of old rivalries and regional ties is a disaster to this old codger/curmudgeon…so, from my perspective, this past weekend of the SEC getting it’s greatness handed to itself…let’s have more…G. Stankey, or whatever the narcissistic arrogant guy’s name is, can go sit in his SEC bubble and stew…bubble, bubble, bubble…toil and trouble.
It’s Sankey, by the way. A couple of weeks ago his league thought that 7 or 8 of the 12 play-off slots should go to SEC teams. The events of the past 2 weeks have certainly broken the hubris bubble. And most of the damage came from teams in his own league.
So now it appears that the old 4-team play-off system would be just as good as the new 12 team system at identifying the national champion. I would be satisfied to see Oregon, Ohio State, Georgia and Texas in the post season.
Gil:
You make a good point about the four-team CFP being satisfactory in 2024 as opposed to the 12-team CFP.