While we sit and wait for Notre Dame’s bowl game to be announced we will satisfy ourselves with an enticing weekend of conference championship matchups. There’s still much jockeying to go before the last College Football Playoff poll is announced next week.
Top 11
1 Oklahoma (+1, 11-1, 59-31 W vs. West Virginia)
The Sooners are the Big 12 regular season champs and will face TCU again, winning 38-20 on November 11th.
2 Clemson (+2, 11-1, 34-10 W at South Carolina)
The Palmetto Bowl offered zero intrigue as Clemson rolls into championship week.
3 Auburn (+3, 10-2, 26-14 W vs. Alabama)
We may be looking at the College Football Playoff’s first 2-loss team.
4 Wisconsin (+1, 12-0, 31-0 W at Minnesota)
If we were still using the BCS model the Badgers would be the No. 1 team this week.
5 Alabama (-4, 11-1, 26-14 L at Auburn)
Are the Tide poised to re-enter the top 4 immediately after losing or will they get jumped after this weekend?
6 Georgia (+1, 11-1, 38-7 W at Georgia Tech)
The Dawgs make it wins in 15 out of their last 17 against the Yellow Jackets.
7 Miami (-4, 11-1, 24-14 L at Pitt)
That dreaded noon start up north bites the Canes at the worst moment.
8 Ohio State (+1, 10-2, 31-20 W at Michigan)
Ohio State have won 13 out of the last 14 games in this so-called rivalry.
9 USC (+1, 10-2, Bye)
The Trojans weren’t off until the last week of the regular season and will be well rested for the Pac-12 title game.
10 TCU (+1, 10-2, 45-22 W vs. Baylor)
This is Gary Patterson’s 11th season with at least 10 wins since 2002.
11 Penn State (+1, 10-2, 66-3 W at Maryland)
The Nittany Lions put a serious hurting on the Terps to cap off the regular season.
Next 2
Washington (NR, 10-2, 41-14 W vs. Washington State)
Chris Petersen notches his 9th season of at least 10 wins in 12 total seasons as a head coach.
Oklahoma State (NR, 9-3, 58-17 W vs. Kansas)
Other options here include Stanford or LSU.
Dropped out: Notre Dame, Washington State
G5 Top 3
1 UCF (E, 11-0, 49-42 W vs. USF)
The quick turnaround for Scott Frost finishes with a perfect regular season.
2 Memphis (E, 11-1, 70-13 W vs. East Carolina)
The Tigers are 38-13 since 2014 after being 12-48 from 2009-13.
3 Fresno State (NR, 9-3, 28-17 W vs. Boise State)
The Jeff Tedford reclamation project has gone swimmingly this year.
You Were Bad
Ball State
Soundly defeated this weekend to finish win-less in the MAC.
Baylor
Limped to a 1-11 record and couldn’t happen to a nicer program.
Nebraska
The whole coaching staff was fired following a 42-point loss at home to Iowa. Wow.
Western Kentucky
Mike Sanford’s first season clocks in at 6-6 with a 24-point finale loss to FIU.
Rutgers
Stadium toilets got clogged during a 33-point loss to Michigan State.
East Carolina
Nothing quite like losing by 57 points.
Illinois
Tubby goes win-less in the B1G and loses to Northwestern by 35 points.
Tennessee
They have larger problems now but did go 0-8 in the SEC losing the finale to Vanderbilt by 18 points.
Week 14 Preview
The latest College Football Rankings used below.
#12 Stanford (+3.5) at #10 USC
The title week party gets started this Friday as USC looks for its 39th conference title and their first, quite shockingly, since 2008. If the Cardinal win it’ll be their 4th conference title in 6 years. Neither outcome is particularly heartening for Notre Dame fans.
Scott Frost has the opportunity to make his mark in college football history by taking over a 0-12 program and going undefeated two years later. It’s still undetermined whether he’ll leave for Nebraska prior to the bowl game, should he accept the job.
Toledo has been a quality program in recent times with at least 9 wins in every season since except 2013 over the last 7 years. They should cruise to their first MAC title since 2004.
Kiffin’s FAU Owls are riding an 8-game winning streak, a victory would be the school’s second conference title, and set the program record for most wins in a single season.
I haven’t listened to much CFP talk but the little that I have was talking about the possibility of TCU making it in or Oklahoma losing this game and still getting in the top 4. In comparison to TCU they’d have the split series, clearly the best win, but no conference title of course.
Auburn looks like a complete buzz saw at the moment but they are banged up and have to be hitting a wall soon. I think that’s why this line is incredibly low compared to the 23-point win notched by the Tigers over Georgia a few weeks ago.
Isn’t it weird for a team (Fresno) to beat another team (Boise) by 11 points last week and turn around and be 8.5 point underdogs in a re-match the next week? Is the blue turf worth that much?
Who wants to bet Miami finishes the season with 3 straight losses?
I’m still sticking to my prediction that Ohio State beats Wisconsin rather soundly and sneaks into the playoff.
Before anyone loses money, tOSU should be minus 6.5.
And thanks for not including the Irish in “You Were Bad.”
FIXED.
Question since I was obviously on a different page than most people a couple weeks back in this discussion: right now, if you were a top 5 team, would you rather play Washington or UCF? Does that change if UCF smokes Memphis (or if UCF barely sneaks by Memphis)?
By “rather” do you mean, which team would be preferable because they are the easiest?
If so, I’d rather face UCF, because I’m guessing there’s a decent chance they’re, well frauds is a strong word, but maybe let’s say perhaps truly a top-10 team and just a great offense aided by low competition that’s able to be exposed. Then again, I don’t know what that really proves if you’re a top-5 team and you take a part a team that didn’t belong there, but I guess there’s some prestige in being the Goliath to dismantle a David and just prove your own power.
Then again, you could also be embarrassed if they’re Boise State and you’re Oklahoma, but I don’t think there’s too much shame losing in OT to a trick play, if it were to come to that.
I would much rather play Washington. They don’t seem to be particularly good at anything. UCF’s offense would scare the hell out of me.
UW is the No. 4 S&P defense, though.
You forgot to mention that Florida went 4-7 this year
There are at least 4-7 reasons to avoid talking about Florida’s 2017 season.
How are we feeling about Griffith now after he decommited from FSU?
247 crystal balls are looking pretty positive, so yay – https://247sports.com/Season/2018-Football/TargetPredictions
Gotta be lookin’ real good with quotes like this and the fact he de-committed shortly after the meeting (plus the Jimbo drama at FSU)
“We chopped it up for a bit. It was good,” said the 6-1, 192-pounder in an interview earlier today. “He came to watch me lift for a bit. Then we talked for a while and then he talked to my coaches for a bit. He was just telling me, as always, that I’m a priority for them. He was talking to me about the depth chart. He said that since I’m an early enrollee and if I understand the defense, I’ll have the opportunity to start as a freshman or midway through the season, or at least play a lot as a freshman. That’s big for me. That’s one of my goals. I definitely want to get on the field as a freshman.”
https://247sports.com/Article/BREAKING-Houston-Griffith-has-de-committed-from-Florida-State-111400615
If he’s as good as his rankings indicate, that’s not even that hype-y: if he’s good enough to provide depth to let Love move to safety and/or let Vaughn sneak in a 3rd year redshirt, the depth chart would be in a *much* better position. Obviously, 3rd year redshirt is highly unlikely as a practical matter, but it’d seem to make some sense given the recruiting strikeout in 2016.