GT beat VT in the Techmo Bowl! And in other unlikely happy events, uga got their rear handed to them by Auburn! This made for a very happy weekend in my house! (Wife is AU alum.) I would have also liked for Alabama to lose (and it looked quite likely), but my wife said she'd prefer them not to be angry for the Iron Bowl. But there's definitely blood in the water now. As for the Imperialism map, holy cow that's a lot of Wisconsin territory in the north! And Auburn is finally on the map! Week 11 map reddit thread
Well, crap. A loss to Duke (WHY?!?), and an almost impossible chance at a 6th win against ugag means GT's season is basically over. Imperialism: Texas took over Oklahoma, and somehow Tulane managed to score some land. Wisconsin still rules the north. Week 12 map Reddit thread
Very fun situation this year to run scenarios in your head. All the non-SEC bubble teams have to be rooting for Alabama in the SEC, because they're the team that can lose and still get in. I'm not invested in any individual team but I've been getting into the drama ever since the 4-team playoff came in. This will be a more exciting conference championship week than last year. Three different games with direct playoff implications for both teams. Very much seems the 4 playoff teams will come from Alabama, Clemson, Miami, Wisconsin, Auburn, Georgia, Oklahoma, though I suppose there are scenarios for Ohio State where Alabama and Miami win their conferences, plus Five-Thirtyeight also give TCU and USC a shot if the apocalypse happens for several teams in front of them. Edit: And Pitt does a major favor for all the outside looking in teams.
Yeah, Miami really blew it. I wouldn’t put USC in there. They’re the worst 10-2 team there is. I should know, I watched every game this season. It’ll be very interesting to see how everything shakes out over the next two weeks.
Five-Thirty Eight had them as 1% chance to get in, I think that scenario required Alabama to win and every other team ahead of them losing every game. Assuming Clemson beats South Carolina, now the picture looks like SEC victor, ACC victor, Wisconsin if they win, Oklahoma if they win. If Oklahoma loses, Alabama seems pretty clearly ahead of TCU, but if Ohio State beats Wisconsin nobody's going to have any idea who the committee will pick. Then of course there's the 'Clemson loses to South Carolina then beats Miami' scenario, which would make very interesting value judgments between Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State. We can probably say there are now 8 teams remaining, I guess? Just a shame only 7 of them play next week so it can't proxy a true quarterfinal. Five Thirty Eight still shows some other teams with 1-4% chances, guess they're just accounting for unpredictability of the committee.
I don’t like the idea of a non-conference champion making the playoffs. Next Saturday will be wild. I’m rooting for Washington State tonight.
I don't think the conference championships necessarily reflect who the best teams are, given the chaotic nature of the league and small number of games. I'd go with top 4 teams regardless of whether they're conference champions. But I might think differently if I was a fan of the game before there was a championship. My personal preference is a playoff system designed to maximize the chance that the best team wins, and if two of the best teams are in the same conference, one of them isn't going to win. Especially if like last year the objectively best team in the conference is frozen out of the conference championship based on arbitrary tiebreakers. Where we had three teams that rock paper scissored each other and Ohio State got left out just because the rock to their scissors happened to have their second loss to a conference opponent and the paper happened to have it to a non-conference opponent.
It seems to me that winning your conference is a much more objective way of determining the “best” teams than a committee vote. That’s a measure, over the whole season, with lots of common opponents. If Alabama gets in, along with the SEC Champ, then a conference champion is left out. Assuming for the moment that USC wins the PAC 12, do they get passed over? I don’t think for a second that USC is a “better” team than Alabama, but... Imagine if the NFL ran like that. Say the Raiders win the AFC West with a 9-7 record. And then a committee says “well, the Titans were second in their division, but they were 10-6, so they get to go to the playoffs instead.” Ultimately the problem is the design of the college football system. Until the go to a true playoff format there will always be these arguments.
I bleed Crimson, but there is no way Alabama deserves to get into the playoff, they lost their first round game today
There's all kinds of crazy scenarios now. Georgia beats Auburn? TCU beats Oklahoma? I think we can be sure either Clemson or Miami is in, and the winner of the SEC is in. Wisconsin is in with a win. Oklahoma is in with a win. That seems the most likely outcome now, with Alabama ass-out. This would probably be the cleanest scenario for the BCS as well.
GT: (but not unexpected) My Auburn-grad wife is extatic though! But yeah, I don't envy the committee's task right now. If it were possible, I'd hold off on making any rankings until after the conference championships.
Multiple reports have Jimbo Fisher leaving my Alma Mater FSU to head for Texas A&M. Other than being buddies with the TAMU athletic director and getting a couple million $ more per season (easy for me to say, right?) I'm not sure what the real attraction is there. As far as the playoff is concerned, it's got to got to 8 teams at some point. It just makes too much sense: The Power 5 champions, a Group of 5 representative and 2 wild cards. My over/under for it happening is 5 years.
It's gotta be 8 teams, yeah. If Alabama gets in again without winning its division, let alone its conference, that's... preposterous. As it is, since there's stupidly only 4 slots it needs to go to 4 different conferences. Also: hahahahaha Alabama lost. My team on the other hand is a dumpster fire. Tennessee was gonna hire Greg Schiano... the fans rioted... and now the University is backing out. Regardless of whether you like Schiano or not, letting fans run things like that is a sure way to keep quality coaches away. Why bother with the headache, especially after the way the fans and local media treated Butch Jones? Vol Nation sure as hell isn't gonna get John Gruden, fortunately. Something Jimbo Fisher might find out actually, though he's not black so A&M might be more patient...
The Schiano move made no sense to me at all.I think that in this case the fans were right. Schiano made very few (if any) friends when he coached the Bucs and the taint of being an alleged enabler for the Sandusky scandal didn't go over very well. Fisher might get more rope than Sumlin, (I'm not sure I like that phrasing ) but he was already doing some whining about FSU fans being upset over a really bad season and he may well find out that the expectations are even higher elsewhere.
Granted, it was a really weird move and I'm not sure the fans weren't right. I'm not sure I buy the Sandusky allegation but then... can't rule it out either, it was just never investigated. His time with the Bucs was a disaster, but what he did at Rutgers was raising the Titanic. Still... he seems to be at least somewhat of an asshole. It's more the perception from the outside and what this little move means for the future. Fans already think they run the place way too much, imo. I think expectations might be higher, but more I think A&M is desperate to be relevant again. There's no... patience.
I was proud of the UW Huskies last night against WSU. But I winced in sympathy a few times. That field was behaving like a Slip 'n Slide!
Week 13 Imperialism map reddit thread All that land overturned..... Looks a lot less orange now. Pitt now controls the largest number of original territories, and since they're not bowl eligible, they've basically taken their ball and gone home! No land on the line for the ACC championship, sadly.
Great game last night for the Pac 12 Championship. That sequence in the 4th quarter, where USC stopped Stanford on 4th and goal, then drove 99 yards for the game winning touchdown, will go down in Trojan lore as one of the greatest. Looks like the Fiesta Bowl for USC. And today should be a glorious day of college football. I don't plan to leave my lazy boy for 12 hours straight. Probably won't even shower today. God Bless America!