Rarely is there a year in which a playoff would work so perfectly in college football.
Of course, it would almost always work out better than the system conceived a little more than a decade ago. It’s just that the number of worthy teams would fit almost perfectly with an eight-team grid.
SEE RELATED:
Ultimately, there could be some bickering about Boise State’s exclusion. But imagine this bracket, with teams juggled a little bit from the rankings below to avoid conference matchups in the opening round:
* (1) Texas vs. (8) Utah
* (4) Southern California vs. (5) Alabama
* (3) Oklahoma vs. (6) Penn State
* (2) Florida vs. (7) Texas Tech
That would be fun.
Instead, there will be hand-wringing in Austin tonight, and rightfully so. Then again, politicking has helped the Longhorns in the past, so it’s not worth crying for Mack Brown and friends when Texas is shipped to the Fiesta Bowl.
The opinion here remains the head-to-head victory for Texas against Oklahoma should matter quite a bit, especially since it came on a neutral field. That said, those nonconference wins – Texas Christian and Cincinnati – look pretty good for the Sooners right now.
As for Florida, it got precisely what it needed late in the season – a bunch of convincing victories, a defeat of a top-10 team (Alabama) and the rapid improvement of the one team that managed to knock off the Gators (Ole Miss).
Anyway, here’s the final regular-season rankings, with all overtime games treated as ties (as usual):
EDIT: AP rankings added at 2:02 p.m.
No./Team | Adj. record | AP | Pvs. | Notable Wins/Head-to-Head |
1. Texas | 11-1 | 3 | 2 | * Okla. (N); Okla. State (H); lost at TT |
2. Florida | 12-1 | 1 | 4 | * Alabama and Ga. (N); lost to Miss. (H) |
3. Oklahoma | 12-1 | 2 | 3 | * TCU, Texas Tech (H); OSU (A); lost to Texas |
4. Southern Cal | 11-1 | 5 | 5 | * Ohio State (H); lost at Oregon State |
5. Alabama | 11-1-1 | 4 | 1 | * Georgia (A); OTW at LSU; lost to Fla. (N) |
6. Texas Tech | 10-1-1 | 8 | 6 | * Texas and Okla. St. (H); lost at Okla. |
7. Penn State | 11-1 | 6 | 7 | * Ohio St. (A), Oregon St. (H); lost at Iowa |
8. Utah | 12-0 | 7 | 8 | * Oregon State , TCU and BYU (H) |
9. Boise State | 12-0 | 9 | 9 | * Oregon (A) |
10. Ohio State | 10-2 | 10 | 10 | * Michigan State (A) |
11. Oklahoma State | 9-3 | 13 | 11 | * Missouri (A); 0-3 vs. Big 12 South powers |
12. Georgia Tech | 9-3 | 14 | 12 | * Florida State (H), BC and Georgia (A) |
13. Texas Christian | 10-2 | 11 | 13 | * BYU (H); lost at Oklahoma and Utah |
14. Cincinnati | 10-2-1 | 12 | 14 | * Pittsburgh (H); OTW at West Virginia |
15. Oregon | 8-3-1 | 15 | 17 | * Oregon State (A); OTW at Purdue |
16. Georgia | 9-3 | 16 | 18 | * Lost to Bama and GT (H) , Florida (N) |
17. Brigham Young | 10-2 | 17 | 19 | * Losses at Utah and TCU |
18. Mississippi | 8-4 | 20 | 20 | * Florida (A) and Louisiana State (A) |
19. Michigan State | 9-3 | 19 | 21 | * Iowa (H) and Northwestern (A) |
20. Virginia Tech | 9-4 | 21 | 28 | * UNC and Nebraska (A); GT (H); BC (N) |
21. Oregon State | 8-4 | 23 | 23 | * USC (H); lost to Oregon (H) |
22. Pittsburgh | 8-3-1 | 18 | 24 | * West Virginia (H) |
23. Boston College | 9-4 | 27 | 16 | * FSU (A) and VT (H); lost to GT (H), VT (N) |
24. Florida State | 8-4 | 28 | 23 | * VT (H); lost to GT (A) and BC (H) |
25. Northwestern | 9-3 | 22 | 26 | * Iowa (A) |
26. Iowa | 8-4 | 26 | 27 | * Penn State (H) |
27. Ball State | 12-1 | 24 | 15 | * WMU (H) and CMU (A); lost to Buffalo (N) |
28. California | 8-4 | 31 | NR | * Oregon (H) |
29. Missouri | 9-4 | 25 | 25 | * Nebraska (A) |
30. North Carolina | 8-3-1 | NR | 30 | * Honorary D1scourse 30 ACC slot |
– Patrick Stevens
