It’s Bama and everyone else. Maybe it’s always been that way and we’ve just never admitted it until now. Bama ranks #1 in the Post Week 13 College Football rankings and they’re showing no signs of letting up from here to trophy presentation time. Not even an SEC championship game–against a Florida team which took advantage of a mis-led Tiger team in Death Valley this past Saturday to clinch to SEC East–seems to be capable of derailing the Tide from grabbing their billionth football championship. yay them.
Ohio State and Michigan are beating folks up fairly regularly. Other than missteps against Iowa and Penn State, the residents of the Horseshoe and Big House have been outscoring opponents by 30 and 31 points per game, respectively. Is it possible that either of them have a shot at taking down Bama? It’s hard to imagine, but in a world where life is stranger than fiction, who really knows?!? Ohio State needs Penn State–the Buckeyes’ only defeat this year–to slip up this coming weekend against Michigan State in order to get to the Big Ten title match, presumably against #9 Wisconsin. Should they make it to the Big Ten title game, they’d be a shoe-in to make the CFB Playoffs. Should Michigan win, and thus make the Big Ten title game and assuming they win there, they’d take the #2 spot in the CFB Playoffs. Aside from those options, the rest of the playoff field is a crap shoot.
Outside of the Big Ten’s multitude of scenarios for crowning a champion, the remaining two spots of the CFB playoff should include some combination of the following teams: Clemson, Louisville and Washington.
Clemson will face either North Carolina or Virginia Tech in the ACC championship. Should they take the conference crown, they’re pretty much guaranteed a spot amongst the final four.
Washington is one win away from heading to the Pac-12 title game–presumably against Colorado–and could steal the final spot in the playoffs with a strong win against rival Washington State this coming weekend and a Pac-12 crown. Should the Huskies falter on either step it would directly benefit Louisville as a possible second entry from the ACC.
Conference Rankings
The Big Ten has taken over the conference rankings lead from the SEC in what has been a very, very long run for the football powerhouse.
With 4 teams in the top 9, the Big Ten reins supreme as the strongest conference in the FBS in 2016. Though the SEC holds the top spot in the Top 25 rankings with Alabama sitting atop their regular perch, the rest of the league has faltered in highly ranked teams. After Bama, Auburn and Florida come in at 13th and 15th, respectively, while the former will represents half of the league in the conference championship game.
Pick’Em Accuracy
The Bassford College Football Matrix has had a good year picking games. It has tallied a 72.4% accuracy so far in 2016 while home teams have averaged winning percentage of 61.9%.
High Minded Sports 