As the action on college football fields throughout the country grows more intense, so do the steaming-hot takes of commentators, both professional and amateur.
Saturday’s results generated plenty of talk, and naturally plenty of hyperbole. Some responses might ultimately be accurate, but most will be over the top. Please don’t misunderstand – we like over the top. That’s what makes this sport the wild ride that it is, filled with passion and pageantry on a weekly basis.
But we’re here to add some needed perspective to all the intensity. So without further ado, here are the top five overreactions from Week 10.
Yeah, just give the trophy to Georgia
The Bulldogs have been at their best this year under the brightest of spotlights, turning in its most dominating performances against top-10 opponents Oregon and Tennessee. The defending national champs should again be ready for the big stage in the SEC title game and in another playoff appearance.
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But Georgia had a scare when they shouldn’t have, needing a fourth-quarter rally to escape Missouri a month ago. In theory they learned a lesson from that near disaster and won’t show up late to the party for the remainder of November. UGA’s last two SEC contests are on the road at Mississippi State and Kentucky, but it seems the Bulldogs’ toughest opponent the rest of the way will be apathy.
Told you the playoff committee rankings are meaningless
Tennessee No. 1 ahead of Georgia? Clemson ahead of Michigan? Alabama at No. 6? Yes, some of the committee’s initial decisions look a little sketchy in hindsight. OK, many of us were questioning those decisions even before Saturday’s results.
The final rankings – the only ones that really count – almost never bear much resemblance to the first set the committee unveils in November. These weekly meetings exist strictly to provide TV content and to fuel discussion. We remind people of this annually, of course, but the said fueled discussion often gets overheated nonetheless.
There is one use for the weekly rankings, however, in that they provide some insight into the thought processes of the panelists. The membership changes from year to year, and careful observers might be able to discern how much weight the committee members ascribe to various factors – schedule strength, quality wins, or the more arbitrary eyeball test or gut feeling about how good a team is.
In short – and we’ve said this many times but it’s worth repeating – one should never waste any energy whinging about where one’s favorite team is placed in any preliminary committee rankings since they will inevitably change. The important question is, does your team have a viable path to the final top four.Â
RE-RANK: Alabama, Clemson lead teams falling in this week’s NCAA 1-131
MISERY INDEX:Clemson wasn’t elite this year and Notre Dame proved it
HIGHS AND LOWS:Winners and losers from Week 10 in college football
LETTER GRADES:Week 10 report card starts with another Stanford flop
A two-loss team will make the playoff
It’s never happened before in the playoff era, and as of this moment there’s really only one team that might have a case to be the first. We’ll get to that in a moment.
Here’s where we are with just three weeks left in the regular season before conference championship time. Just four unbeaten teams remain, and there will be no more than three with Ohio State and Michigan on a collision course. This of course means there will be at least one one-loss team among the four semifinalists, and there might be only one if the Buckeyes-Wolverines winner along with Georgia and TCU run the table. As matters stand, the primary once-beaten candidates figure to be Tennessee, the Ohio State-Michigan loser, Clemson and the eventual Pac-12 champion assuming Oregon or the UCLA-Southern California winner avoids a second loss. Naturally, should any or all of the remaining unbeatens stumble down the stretch, the pool gets even more crowded as we get into résumé comparisons and all those other seemingly non-scientific criteria mentioned above.
All of which brings us to LSU, all but dismissed thanks to a Week 1 loss to Florida State and last month’s convincing home drubbing at the hands of Tennessee. But suddenly the Tigers are in the driver’s seat in the SEC West, which would earn them a crack at Georgia in the conference finale if they successfully close out the division. LSU would be a heavy underdog to the Bulldogs, but would a win earn the Tigers a top-four spot?
The situation would be comparable to that of Penn State in 2016. The Nittany Lions won the Big Ten, taking down Ohio State in the process before beating Wisconsin in the championship game. But they had dropped a non-conference contest to Pittsburgh and were beaten handily by Michigan early in the league campaign. Ohio State at 11-1 was chosen for the playoff despite the head-to-head loss to the Nittany Lions.
Would winning the SEC carry more cache for LSU with the committee, or would they be similarly aced out by a one-loss team from their own conference, even one LSU might have beaten? Stay tuned.
The ACC needs to rethink its relationship with Notre Dame
Notre Dame is a conference member in most other sports, but the league’s alliance with the football version of the Fighting Irish is complicated, allowing the program to maintain independence but providing opponents on a yearly rotating basis. This proved beneficial in the past, most notably in the pandemic year of 2020 when Notre Dame was granted temporary football membership that helped both Clemson and the Irish earn national semifinal invitations. The relationship hasn’t worked out so well for the conference this year, however, as the Fighting Irish have just about singlehandedly sabotaged the ACC’s playoff prospects, going 3-0 against the league with wins against division leaders North Carolina and Clemson, the lone losses for both those teams. Those defeats might not be crippling by themselves but for the Irish’s own uneven play which made those results more damaging.
Given the current media climate, however, there really isn’t much ACC officials can do about it. As long as Notre Dame can do better for itself negotiating its own football TV rights, the conference isn’t likely to persuade the school to come on board as a full football member. About all ACC fans can hope now is that Notre Dame proves an equal opportunity saboteur in a few weeks by derailing Southern California.
Hendon Hooker/C.J. Stroud/Bryce Young just lost the Heisman
Hooker, like Bo Nix before him, was unable to solve the Georgia defense. Stroud’s Buckeyes didn’t lose, but his struggles with the elements against a bad Northwestern team didn’t help his case. Young nearly rescued the Crimson Tide again, but his slow start and Alabama’s second loss damaged his bid to repeat.
But did anyone else make a definitive statement to seize control of the race? Stetson Bennett? Jayden Daniels? Drake Maye? The next few weeks could still produce Heisman moments for someone, possibly a player not mentioned here, meaning the race is wide-open and ready for the taking.
Story Credit: usatoday.com