Last year, I painted a pretty clear picture of why college football needs an eight-team playoff. I stand by that argument – eight is the way…no more, no less. So, I’m going to be starting a new weekly column looking at what the College Football Playoff would look like under my format. I think it’s a reasonable way to determine a National Champion without leaving deserving candidates out, but making sure everyone has an equal chance to get in. With that said, let’s dive right in…
Big Natural’s College Football Playoff Projections
1. Alabama Crimson Tide (SEC Champion) – No disrespect to the Sooners, but Alabama owns the most impressive victory of the season so far, when they beat a really good Florida State team. Right now, they’re looking like the best team in the nation. Business as usual for the Tide.
2. Oklahoma Sooners (Big 12 Champion) – No disrespect to the Tigers, but Oklahoma has the second most impressive victory of the season so far….going into Columbus and absolutely assaulting Ohio State. If they can get past Oklahoma State, they should win all of their other games and finish the season atop the Big 12.
3. Clemson Tigers (ACC Champion) – That Clemson defense is as formidable as they come…I mean, it’s a veritable NFL defense, and they bullied around a pretty potent Auburn offense last week. They can hit the quarterback and completely shut down opposing offenses. If they continue to do that, they’ll have a chance to repeat.
4. Penn State Nittany Lions (Big Ten Champion) – No disrespect to Penn State, but I want to see them play an elite caliber of opponent before I put ’em in the top three. Still, where they sit now, they’ve looked better than anyone else in the Big Ten.
5. USC Trojans (Pac-12 Champion) – The Pac-12 looks competitive…between USC, Washington, UCLA, Washington State, and even Utah and Oregon in the mix. Plus, just because they lost to USC doesn’t mean Stanford is out of it. If USC wins the conference, they’ll be in the playoff hunt. That certainly looks likely so far.
6. Washington Huskies (Wild Card) – So, we’re down to the two wild card spots with all of the major conference champions out of the way, and of the teams remaining, I think Washington has looked the best so far and has put themselves in a position to be in the mix as the season goes on.
7. Michigan Wolverines (Wild Card) – How much of a quality win Florida is by the end of the season remains to be seen, but for now, the Wolverines are looking pretty good. They’re 2-0 and Ohio State is 1-1, so that’s why they get the nod.
8. South Florida Bulls (Group of Five Representative) – Either this is an incredibly down year for the Group of Five, or there just haven’t been enough of the power five schools losing games yet to determine, but there’s not really anyone even challenging South Florida for this spot yet.
So, that would give us:
(1) Alabama vs. (8) South Florida
(2) Oklahoma vs. (7) Michigan
(3) Clemson vs. (6) Washington
(4) Penn State vs. (5) USC
No Ohio State, Florida State, or Stanford. While it’s certainly possible that these teams get back into the mix as the ones ranked ahead of them lose games, they’ve all lost games that were pretty much playoff games as the regular season started. In the mix, you’d have to include Oklahoma State, Wisconsin, and LSU. But, we’ll see where things stand next week.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. A strong advocate of GSD (get shit done) and #BeBetter, he’s down to talk Tennessee Titans and Alabama Crimson Tide football over a beer any day. Check him out covering the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley, @WrestlingNewsCo
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