Notre Dame does not win a conference as Clemson wins their 7th straight ACC title, Alabama wins their 7th SEC title under Saban, and in general the favorites performed well during Championship Saturday. For a moment, it looked like it could be a drama-filled Sunday for the playoff committee rankings but not enough craziness happened on the field.
Next up, a very weird (and kind of stupid) bowl season.
18 Stripes Top 20 Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | NEXT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama | 11-0 | 52-46 Win vs. Florida |
| 2 | Clemson (+1) | 10-1 | 34-10 Win vs. Notre Dame |
| 3 | Ohio State (+1) | 6-0 | 22-10 Win vs. Northwestern |
| 4 | Notre Dame (-2) | 10-1 | 34-10 Loss vs. Clemson |
| 5 | Cincinnati | 9-0 | 27-24 Win vs. Tulsa |
| 6 | Texas A&M | 8-1 | 34-13 Win vs. Tennessee |
| 7 | Coastal Carolina (+1) | 11-0 | BYE |
| 8 | Indiana (+1) | 6-1 | BYE |
| 9 | Oklahoma (+2) | 8-2 | 27-21 Win vs. Iowa State |
| 10 | Louisiana (+2) | 9-1 | BYE |
| 11 | BYU (+3) | 10-1 | BYE |
| 12 | Florida (+3) | 8-3 | 52-46 Loss vs. Alabama |
| 13 | Georgia (+3) | 7-2 | BYE |
| 14 | Iowa State (-5) | 8-3 | 27-21 Loss vs. Oklahoma |
| 15 | USC (-7) | 5-1 | 31-24 Loss vs. Oregon |
| 16 | Northwestern (-3) | 6-2 | 22-10 Loss vs. Ohio State |
| 17 | Iowa | 6-2 | BYE |
| 18 | Miami | 8-2 | BYE |
| 19 | San Jose State (NR) | 7-0 | 34-20 Win vs. Boise State |
| 20 | Ball State (NR) | 6-1 | 38-38 Win vs. Buffalo |
OUT: Tulsa, Buffalo
IN:Â San Jose State, Ball State
Week 16 Recap
Despite protestations from Texas A&M they were left out of the final playoff rankings and we’ve mirrored that in our final 18 Stripes poll, as well. Once again, the Big 12, Pac-12, and Group of 5 conferences are shut out of the big show. Try again next year.
It’s a pretty disheartening finish for many programs, especially the smaller ones.
We don’t even have North Carolina ranked in our Top 20 poll and yet they made a major bowl! They were 6-3 a couple weeks ago and beat one Power 5 team to somehow make a top bowl game. Insanity.
A couple weeks ago Florida was 6th in the committee’s rankings. They lost twice since then and only dropped to 7th. Yup, they got a major bowl bid.
We knew we’d get something dumb like a 4-2 Oregon sneaking into the committee rankings (25th lol) and getting a major bowl bid because they “won” the Pac-12. They’ll face another Power 5 team who lost 3 games and didn’t win their conference.
No major bowl game for Indiana, which feels deeply wrong. They get 4-5 Ole Miss, instead.
Army can’t even get into a bowl game at 9-2, it’s pure madness!
Then, you have cool things like our No. 10 team Louisiana (9 spots lower in the committee rankings of course) having the pleasure of playing a bowl game against a 4-loss team (UTSA) who is the SP+ No. 91st ranked program.
***
CFB Top 25: Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Florida, Cincinnati, Georgia, Iowa State, Indiana, Coastal Carolina, North Carolina, Northwestern, Iowa, BYU, USC, Miami, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma State, San Jose State, NC State, Tulsa, Oregon.
Bowl Season Games to Watch
12/21
Boca Raton Bowl
UCF (+4.5) vs. BYU
This game is TODAY. It’s been a disappointing season for UCF who spent most of the fall off the radar following a couple of early losses. But, all 3 of their total losses were close and they certainly have the offense to beat BYU.
12/26
Cure Bowl
Liberty (+6) vs. Coastal Carolina
Finally, we get this game that was scheduled late in the regular season and cancelled because of Covid issues with Liberty. Let’s hope they make it to the weekend. You can’t help but feel disappointed for Coastal to be finishing their season in a Tier 17 bowl game, even if it is a pretty good game between 2 ranked teams.
12/30
Cotton Bowl
Florida (+2.5) vs. Oklahoma
How much will Florida have left in the tank at this point? In my mind, that’s largely why Oklahoma is favored in this game. Plus, Florida can probably lose and maybe move up even more in the rankings! Yes, we know we moved them up this week but we dropped them quite a bit for losing to LSU.
12/31
Arizona Bowl
Ball State (+7) vs. San Jose State
A pair of conference winners suiting up for the 6th annual Arizona Bowl. With a payout of $350,000 in normal times it’s guaranteed both of these programs are losing money to put this show on for the country. Sneaky good season for both the Cardinals and Spartans though, this is a fun New Year’s Eve game to catch.
1/1
Peach Bowl
Georgia (-6.5) vs. Cincinnati
If we get a motivated Georgia this should be a very good bowl game. We should probably expect Cincinnati’s defense to really frustrate Georgia’s offense and if so this could go down to the wire.
1/1
Sugar Bowl
Ohio State (+7.5) vs. Clemson
News came out this morning that Dabo Swinney ranked Ohio State 11th with his Coaches Poll vote and man did he just throw a whole bunch of lighter fluid on this game.
1/2
Fiesta Bowl
Oregon (+4) vs. Iowa State
What a waste of a major bowl game. I have nothing more to say.
1/2
Orange Bowl
Texas A&M (+5.5) vs. North Carolina
UNC just had their leading receiver Dyami Brown opt out and begin preparing for the NFL Draft. Now, we have one of possibly a few built-in excuses (EDIT: running back Michael Carter and linebacker Chazz Surratt opted out later today too) for the Tar Heels to lose. I don’t understand how they made it to this game (I mean I do, but still) and it seems comical that A&M goes from being aggrieved at missing the playoffs to facing a team that lost 3 times and beat 2 teams with a winning record.
You can also look at the orange bowl matchup as an 8 win team who beat 2 teams with a winning record VS a 7 win team who beat 2 teams with a winning record. But yeah, UNC will probably get massacred.
I wouldn’t assume that. Remember in 2018 when Georgia spent all bowl season screaming about how ND shouldn’t be in the playoff because SEC, then promptly went out and lost to a mediocre Texas team in the Sugar Bowl?
I think that’s A&M this year.
I like Clemson over OSU from what I saw of the latter on Saturday. Fields is nowhere near Lawrence as a qb, and Clemson’s defense is stronger than Northwestern.
Good for Dabo. He stirred up a hornets nest for the OSU bulletin board, but I’m sure he knew that and doesn’t believe the Buckeyes can hang with his guys. OSU played about half the schedule the rest of the playoff teams played and won a very weak conference. I believe we could beat OSU this year.
I wonder if only playing 6 games will help or hurt OSU. You get the benefit of less wear and tear, but they also don’t look like they have totally gelled, yet.
Yeah, I don’t think Ryan Day knows what he has in that offense yet, especially if their #1 WR continues to miss time. Against Northwestern, Fields looked like Ian Book on his bad days, while their running game looked like Kyren Williams/Chris Tyree on their good days. But OSU offensive coaches love to throw the ball, even when it’s not working, going back to the days of Ezekiel Elliott. To beat Clemson, good Justin Fields has to show up, which is something he rarely does against good defenses.
I’d guess hurt, and it will hurt more that they haven’t seen anything close to Clemson’s caliber yet this year.
I expect them to look every bit as outclassed as we did, maybe worse.
If only they had played Michigan!
If ND beats Bama, that would mean we would have beaten two # 1’s in the same season. Just wondering if that has ever happened before or would this be a first?
Here, let me blatantly plagiarize from TOS:
2017 Auburn beat #1 Georgia and #1 Alabama. Caveat: those were the College Football Playoff rankings. Georgia was #2 in both the Coaches and AP poll. Choose your poll to answer the question I guess.
Army found a bowl game!
I count 3 wins for UNC vs. teams with winning records. (Miami, NC St., BC) Wasn’t ND pointing to their win vs. ranked UNC as a significant victory?