College Football Conference Championship Saturday Thread

A couple of things before we get to the games.

First, the college football playoff. Unlike a lot of people, I am basically fine with the committee placing Alabama in the playoffs if they were seeded today. The thing is this–Miami is a bullshit team. Yes, they lost only twice and Bama has lost three times. But anyone watching Miami sees that they have like 6 barely won games against vastly inferior teams. Then they went up to Syracuse and got smacked around. If the committee really wanted the best team to put in that last spot, it would be South Carolina, but the Gamecocks lost to both Alabama and Ole Miss and if they all have three losses, hard to move away from the head to head though. We can debate this and that here and Bama probably is getting the benefit of the doubt due to their history and name, but it’s not like anyone else has a more compelling case at that point. Now, if SMU loses to Clemson and Bama is in the playoffs ahead of a 2 loss SMU team that lost in the conference title game, that would be complete bullshit.

Also, Oregon pulled in a top 5 recruiting class. Sure, NIL is a big part of that but it is with lots of other top schools. I’m not going to bemoan players making a lot of money and neither should you. I am not the first one to note that since this became legal, the SEC is less dominant. Anyway, Dan Lanning is a sick man and these videos that came out about how he motivates his players are ridiculous. Hell, I want to play for the man.

And here he is smashing a Washington Husky helmet last week at halftime.

Jeepers!

Now to the games:

Last night, Boise handled UNLV easily and they will be in the playoff. There were some minor conference titles too–yay to Jacksonville State and Army I suppose. As for today’s meaningful games:

Big 12 Championship–#15 Arizona State vs. #16 Iowa State, 12, ABC

The Big 12 probably is underrated in the sense of that these teams are certainly better than Miami. But they aren’t super awesome and have two losses and here we are. Arizona State has looked so great in the second half of the season, although they did have to squeak one out at home against a bad Central Florida team. Iowa State has been solid too, avoiding the total fraud designation after back to back losses against Texas Tech and Kansas, including a very solid win last week against a good Kansas State team. This is a fun matchup and I will take Iowa State +1.5 but not by much.

SEC Championship–#5 Georgia vs. #2 Texas, 4, ABC.

The thing about this game is that Georgia provided Texas its only loss. But Georgia is so goddamn inconsistent. I was semi-outraged about that 8 OT game they won against Georgia Tech last week–the college football OT rules are idiotic and Georgia did not deserve to win that game. Texas hasn’t looked flawless in recent weeks, but you aren’t going to hold late season close wins against Arkansas and Texas A&M against them, especially given the renewal of those historical rivalries. Georgia looked awesome against Tennessee two weeks before the Georgia Tech struggle, but looked awful against Tech and Ole Miss. So really who knows what version of the Bulldogs will show up. I like Texas -2.5 here. Longhorns have just been too good and while a rematch generally should favor the loser of two equal teams, Georgia just doesn’t seem to be an equal team.

ACC Championship–#17 Clemson vs. #8 SMU, 8, ABC. The ACC is just not a good conference. That doesn’t take away from the great season SMU has had. They’ve also been dominant in recent games, blowing both Virginia and Cal out after solid wins against Pitt and Boston College. OK, it’s not a murderer’s row but it’s the ACC. Clemson meanwhile hasn’t looked so good of late. No shame to lose to South Carolina, but you’d like to see a serious playoff team win that game and there’s been a lot of very close wins too. So I take SMU -2.5 and feel plenty good about it.

Big 10 Championship, #3 Penn State vs. #1 Oregon, 8, FOX. Why is Oregon only -3.5 here? I don’t get it. Penn State’s best win is Illinois. They barely beat Minnesota and USC and didn’t look that great against UCLA too. The only good team they’ve played is Ohio State and the Buckeyes may have won by 7, but really dominated that game. They do have talent, but there isn’t anything like a marquee win here and while you can’t help your conference schedule, you can beat those teams by more. Meanwhile, Oregon also beat Illinois, but with ease and they beat Ohio State, Boise State, and Michigan. The only game Oregon hasn’t totally dominated in conference was at Wisconsin a few weeks back. The records stand for themselves. Of course Penn State has a lot of good players and most certainly could win this game. But I don’t see an argument where Oregon -3.5 isn’t an excellent call.

There’s another interesting thing about this game. The playoff committee really screwed something up. This is a 1-12 playoff, with the top 4 conference champions getting a bye. There is also not reseeding after the first round. What this means is that the 1 seed, say Oregon, gets a bye, yes, but then has to play, quite possibly the winner of Georgia-Ohio State in the second round. But if Oregon loses, they go to the 5 seed. That would mean a home game against the Big 12 winner and then a neutral site game against Boise State. A lot of people are like, wait a minute, might losing be better? I say no way! Losing is never better!!! Plus it’s not like the Sun Devils or Cyclones are chumps here and neither are the Broncos.

However, am I going to cry myself to sleep if Oregon loses tonight knowing that this is the backup scenario? I can’t say that I will. Moreover, this seems to be the realization of a lot of people that this game doesn’t matter. You can get a seat in Indianapolis tonight for the price of a 6-pack.

Next year, if the playoffs have to do this ridiculous top 4 conference champion bye thing, then they’d better reseed after the first round. Makes no sense to give the 5 seed that easy of a road into the semis when in fact, the 1 seed is playing the winner of the game between the 5th and 6th best team in the country.

Oh, the MAC title has Miami vs. Ohio and it is Marshall vs. Louisiana in the Sun Belt. So if you are fans of said conferences, well, go for it. I once saw a Marshall game live, against Ohio in fact. It was Thanksgiving weekend in Huntington, there was a 34 degree downpour all game, and I got sick. Marshall won 28-0. What a time to be alive.