Watched some:
Mountain West: (20) UNLV 7-21 (10) Boise State
Boise State just straight smoked UNLV in the 1st half and then not much happened in the 2nd half--to which I would credit Boise State's stifling attack. UNLV did not belong in the playoff and I'm glad Boise State handled their business.
SEC: (5) Georgia 22-19 (OT) (2) Texas
I thought Texas was the better team, the game went back and forth, UGA kinda took off after QB Beck got injured and they had to go to the backup, who was better (though he still threw one of the most inexplicable interceptions I've seen in a while). The two teams are similar: at their best when they're running but sometimes stall and can't sustain, both have top quality pass rush, both have some spice on special teams, but neither team has any standout WR's and UGA's QB is suspect, while UT's is just not as good as it seems like he ought to be. In short: both teams have good--but not great--depth of talent
and play to their strengths, but there are chinks in the armor that top flight opponents can nibble away at. Again, I thought Texas was better but they didn't get it done in OT, so that was that. Both are in the playoff but the winner gets a bye and the loser doesn't.
Big 10: (3) Penn State 37-45 (1) Oregon
Typically in a normal year there are 3-4 teams (sometimes 5) that look truly capable of winning the championship; but expanding out to 12 teams throws so many more teams in the mix that I think it waters down the top tier schools and this year, only Oregon looked like a real champion all season long. Penn State has been getting better but can't get over the hump of beating the top tier schools for a few years now; expanding out to 12 teams is a godsend to good-but-not-great teams like Penn State. Here, Oregon jumped out to a commanding lead with an offense that ran and passed with ease, converted 3rd downs like pros and just generally always seem to catch the defense out of position. You would expect a team like Penn State to fall to pieces after such an early shellacking, but I was impressed at how well they hung in and came back to make the close, the game went to the final minute when it looked over early. That said....it was over early. For all of Penn State's impressive stick-to-it-tive-ness, I never thought Oregon was losing this game. Oregon is the clear obvious no-brainer #1 team in the land; Penn State is a nice contestant in the tourney, solid enough (if a little vanilla) to hang tough and make the most of others' mistakes.
ACC: (17) Clemson 34-31 (8) Southern Methodist
SMU played about as awful as they could in the 1st half and I still thought they were gonna win--and was kinda shocked that they didn't. Clemson made SMU pay for their early mistakes (turnovers, bad penalties, dumb plays--they put on the full show of awful!) and rode a 24-7 lead into the half. But after that, SMU picked up their game and looked damn good on offense and pretty good on defense. Clemson was able to sneak in the game-winning FG, but, man, I just didn't think they had it in them to make those kinds of plays down the stretch. I'm glad SMU made the tourney--I think they deserved it; flipside: I think Clemson is the 12th best team remaining (and the reason the extra SEC squad isn't here--not SMU, who totally deserves to be ahead of Alabama, South Carolina and Ole Miss).
Watched none (or very little)
C-USA: Western Kentucky 12-52 Jacksonville St.
Wow, quite the pasting Jax State dropped on the Hilltoppers. I know nothing about of either of these teams or this conference or this game....except that it looks like Jax came to play and WKU did not.
American Athletic: Tulane 14-35 (24) Army
Both of these squads have been pretty good all year long, both faltering in November. Every time I turned this game on, Tulane was turning the ball over and Army was poised to increase their lead. Yeah, I saw not much of this because it was clear Army was housing them throughout. Thought for a while that an undefeated Army squad would have to get some kind of consideration from the committee, could there have been enough election year fervor to get the Cadets into the inaugural playoff? (If they'd beaten Notre Dame, we might've found out)
Big 12: (16) Iowa State 19-45 (15) Arizona State
Yeah, the Sun Devils put in on the Cyclones early and often and this was over pronto. Iowa State is a nice team for keeping the score low, getting a lucky break or two and stealing W's from better teams. But ASU's onslaught nullified all that and Iowa State had no chance to get back into this game. Arizona State got hot late and stole this conference (yeah, I just noticed they were in the Big 12, like, last week), so all I know about them is they're kinda hot right now. But whooping up on Iowa State doesn't get me too pumped this year as even the top of that conference was pretty mediocre (and the bottom featured a lot of typically reliable teams having stinkburger years). Good luck, Arizona State (I have you ranked #11 out of 12).
MAC: Ohio 38-3 Miami (OH)
Nice work, OU! Don't take no guff from the mean preppy kids from the rich camp on the other side of the lake. I can't imagine the Bobcats are worthy of a tournament invite but they went 10-3, avenged their one conference L and stomped their way through the championship. Good season.
Sun Belt: Marshall 31-3 Louisiana
Two more teams I was not acquainted with this season, looks like Marshall came to play.
My top 12
1 Oregon (1)
2 Ohio State (8)
3 Notre Dame (7)
4 Texas (5)
5 Penn State (6)
6 Georgia (2)
7 Southern Methodist (11)
8 Indiana (10)
9 Tennessee (9)
10 Boise State (3)
11 Arizona State (4)
12 Clemson (12)
I'm not in favor of holding the top 4 seeds for conference winners. I think winning a conference earns you a spot in the top 12 but otherwise you get ranked alongside everyone else. So Arizona State taking the #4 seed is positively absurd--really a dumbass way to kick off this new invention! See, Clemson won their conference and they are ranked #12, which is what they deserve (yes: behind the team they just beat!), because Clemson is not that good and the fact that they were able to backdoor their way into this tourney is all the reward they should get. Clemson won and they are getting what they deserve, while Arizona State won and are being waywaywayway overrated.
That said, this produced some excellent matches that I'm looking forward to. And I'm going to watch as much as the TV will allow.
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