The rest of us will go there with the Buckeyes because it’s that first real threat to plunge the College Football Playoff into pure chaos. Cal now ranks last in major college football in scoring defense, allowing 45.6 points per game. What I want is Iowa – trash-heap Iowa, incapable of scoring or doing much of anything consistently, shelling out shovels of money to a good coach who doesn’t really deserve great money – beating MI.
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That dog of a weekend turned into pure bedlam.
Goalkeeper Tim Howard didn’t travel with the United States for Tuesday night’s World Cup qualifier at Costa Rica after injuring the adductor muscle in his right leg. No. 3 MI was shocked. 4 Washington on the road.
No. 8 Texas A&MNo. “It was an exciting night of football – a lot of upsets”.
It’s no surprise that the Big 12 and the playoff committee have not been the best of friends in the CFP’s first two seasons. Ohio State has better wins than Washington right now, and the loss to surging Penn State stings less and less the higher the Nittany Lions climb (though Ohio State needs Penn State to lose one of its next two games to have a shot at the Big Ten crown).
That means Ohio State and MI won’t even appear in the Big Ten title game, let alone win the conference. It still has a clear path to a conference title, on which the CFP committee places massive importance. Would they buck tradition for the Buckeyes? So what happens if Wisconsin, Nebraska, or Penn State wins the conference at 11-2?
Wisconsin might not have as much of a gripe.
So Ohio State could make the playoff. If they lose, they lose the greatest opportunity by not playing in a New Year’s Six.
Wisconsin was seventh and Penn State eighth, giving the Big Ten four teams in the top 10.
Penn State? That’s another story. “We know who we’re having to play, but all our focus is on West Virginia and everything we have to do to prepare for them”. The Buckeyes were dangerously close to being a one-loss team without a conference title to get in the playoff a year ago. The problem for Ohio State is they don’t control their own destiny.
But if Ohio State cracks the top four this week, and coming off back-to-back 62-3 victories it would seem hard to derail that momentum train, how do you dislodge the Buckeyes if they win their final two games? The point of the Top Whatever is to just get an adequate group of four or so, and this is more than adequate, Ohio State fans.
But it won’t be case closed. That would leave the committee with a tough decision between an 11-1 Ohio State and an 11-2 Penn State/Wisconsin.
Here’s what we know: After the first seven, the rankings kind of fall off a cliff. If you ask me – based on the eye test – those teams are Alabama, Ohio State and Louisville. The Big 10 is projected to have five schools ranked, with four in the top 10.
Which is insane, considering OSU may not even have a chance to play for a Big Ten title. No team cost itself a quality win. Yes, Louisville lost to Clemson, but Clemson lost to Pitt and flirted with disaster in several other games. Oklahoma sits at No. 9, while one-loss West Virginia is back at No. 14. MI isn’t dead yet. Western Michigan will be facing Buffalo, which is 2-8. No one has beaten the Broncos. You know things are particularly bad when a Michigan State team who inexplicably lost to IL belts the stuffing out of you. The victor would play for the national championship, the loser didn’t. “We’ve got to get ready for Michigan State”.
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Even the committee might prefer that.
