I swore I wouldn’t do this column anymore. No one read it last year – seriously, I would get maybe 20 hits on a good week. After that, I said, “there’s no point in doing these anymore,” and I canceled the column. Well…I couldn’t keep it at bay any longer…I’ve decided to resurrect the beast. Luck be a lady tonight and that’s showbiz, baby. LFG.
Two years ago, 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’ve started 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 to my weekly College Football Playoff projections…
So, this is it – this is what the playoff teams would look like for 2018 under my format…
BIG NATURAL’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF PROJECTIONS
1. Alabama Crimson Tide (SEC Champion) – Tua Tagovailoa and company are smoking people this season. Four weeks into the season, and Alabama looks like they are far and away the best college football team in the country. It’s going to take a gargantuan effort to slow this offense down, but if anyone can do it, it looks like it may be the LSU Tigers or the Georgia Bulldogs on defense.
2. Ohio State Buckeyes (Big Ten Champion) – That TCU win isn’t so special anymore after last week, is it? We’ll find out a lot more about this Buckeyes team after their date with Penn State come Saturday. Dwayne Haskins is a Heisman contender, but they haven’t really played anybody yet.
3. Clemson Tigers (ACC Champion) – Trevor Lawrence is taking over at quarterback after drumming Georgia Tech. Considering that Syracuse and Duke may be the biggest potential blips on the Tigers ACC schedule, I’d say this is a team poised to run through their conference. If they do that, they’ll be in.
4. Stanford Cardinal (Pac 12 Champion) – Let’s give the Cardinal some credit – that was a signature win on Saturday against Oregon. They may be the Pac-12’s only hope at a CFP this season. They may have to run the table to earn it.
5. Oklahoma Sooners (Big 12 Champion) – We’ll find out more about this Sooners team as they get into the meat of their Big 12, but after that scare against Army, they certainly look like the weakest of the Power Five leaders in my book.
6. LSU Tigers (Wild Card #1) – No one in the country has two more impressive wins than LSU’s wins over Miami and Auburn. @ me. Coach O has his team performing well, but (shocker) they’re doing it with defense.
7. Georgia Bulldogs (Wild Card #2) – Georgia has some tough games remaining on the schedule: @ LSU, @ Kentucky (just like we all thought), and vs. Auburn. But, so far, so good. I actually have them behind LSU based on quality of schedule so far.
8. UCF Golden Knights (Group of Five Representative) – Pretty sure I had UCF in this spot for 800 straight weeks last season, and looking around the other Group of Five contenders in 2018, I’ll probably have them locked into this spot for 800 more weeks.
So, that gives us…
(8) UCF at (1) Alabama
(5) Oklahoma at (4) Stanford
(7) Georgia at (2) Ohio State
(6) LSU at (3) Clemson
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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