None of the top seeds with buys won a game and the best team right now would not have been in a four team bracket.
Let's start with this. The current favorite to win the whole thing (The Ohio State) would not have even been invited to a four team bracket. Given that Oregon and Georgia were one and two, that means that one of the other three teams would not have made a four team playoff either. Likely Texas would have made it, but either Notre Dame or Penn State would have been left out and both have played great football.
At the end of the day, Arizona State was the surprise, and probably should have beaten Texas. A couple of calls (including the inexplicable no-call on the targeting late in the fourth quarter) helped Texas past what should have been an overmatched Big 12 champion. The targeting call would have extended the Arizona State fourth quarter drive and brought them down into long field goal range with about minute on the clock. There really was no explanation given by anyone as to why it was not called, even after it was obvious on review. That being said, Arizona State hurt themselves on fourth and 13 in overtime by committing to and making an all out blitz too obvious, which was the play where Texas scored to force the second overtime. Not sure what it is, but Texas has seemingly played all of their big games this season in a lackluster manner and just seem to rely on their talent. The game on New Years was no different. They will need to bring more against The Ohio State Buckeyes.
If you put a gun to my head, I might argue that it will be an all Big 10 final. The Ohio State started as a five point favorite over Texas, but that spread has been expanding. This is a game between probably two of the most talented football teams in the country and will be like watching two great racehorses galloping down a track. Notre Dame is a slight favorite over Penn State, but Penn State has played in bigger games during the regular season. Sure, Notre Dame beat Georgia, but they beat a Georgia team who was short a starting quarterback and had other injuries. Penn State was more than competitive against Oregon and Ohio State during the regular season and they have looked dominating in the playoffs. All that being said, there is always something that makes you want to root for Notre Dame (College Football seems better when they are good) and I may find myself pulling for the Irish. Either way, it will be a smashmouth old school football game between two of the most historically smashmouth football programs in the country.
So the playoffs? Would I maybe change how the seeding works? Sure. But the twelve team playoff has proven to be a worthy change. We would not have seen the four teams we are currently seeing in the finals under the old system, meaning that the argument that teams outside of that top four were just arguing to get into the playoff (but were never going to win) has been wrong all along. The team that they seeded 8th is the team that is favorited to win right and quite frankly they were always considered a top threat even as they were seeded 8th. I guess the committee is not as smart as they believe themselves to be. Lastly, when you allow twelve teams (instead of four) into the playoffs, you have less teams ending up calling it in for their bowl games with half the team sitting out for one reason or another. Would it be nice to go back to having big bowl games that everyone took seriously? Yeah, but those days are gone and the 12 team playoffs is your best hope to keep the best talent on the field through the end of the season.
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