1. Alabama is mortal and it helps the SEC. First of all, it's always good to have someone else win the league. But in addition, the Tide losing pretty much assures Auburn is in one of the access bowls even if it loses to Georgia. I mean, the Tigers are 10-2 right now. They have beaten the No. 1 team in the country in consecutive weeks. Their losses are to the presumed new No. 1 (Clemson) and LSU, who will probably be in the top 15. That's a damn good resume. The winner of the SEC title game is in the playoff. And it's not out of the question Alabama could slide in too. The loser of the title game will go to the Orange Bowl if two teams are in the playoff. If not, the Orange probably takes the Tide and the title game loser goes to the Peach Bowl.
2. The similarities to 2007 are eerie. 2007 is generally considered the craziest college football season ever. 2017 is doing a hell of an imitation. I mean, the top two teams in the country lose the final weekend of the regular season (back then it was LSU and kansas, now it's Bama and Miami), Pittsburgh pulls an upset that shakes up everything (West Virginia, Miami), two-loss Ohio State might be the biggest beneficiary of all of it and Oklahoma is just sitting there lurking as potentially the best team in the country except for an inexplicable loss (this year it's Iowa State, in 2007 it was Colorado). Fun, fun seasons, both of them. Obviously the only difference here is that Missouri isn't involved in the fun this time.
3. Speaking of Ohio State, JT Barrett got hurt by a cameraman in warmups and then aggravated the injury and had to leave the Buckeyes' win over Michigan. So JK Dobbins ran for 100 yards and Dwayne Haskins Jr. stepped in and led the way to a win. This is life at Ohio State: If your starter gets hurt, you put in a backup most people haven't heard of who just so happens to be a four-star, top 100 player from a couple years ago. And I never root for Ohio State, but it is fun to see Michigan start the season in the top ten talking about the playoff and end up 8-4 with its best win of the season being Purdue.
4. If kansas and Illinois played would a giant sinkhole just open up and swallow everything? The Jayhawks lost 58-17 to Oklahoma State. They are 1-11 this year, 0-9 in the Big 12. In the last four years, they are 6-42 (that is bolstered by a high water mark of 3-9 in Charlie Weis' last season), including 2-34 in Big 12 play. For some perspective, Kansas State was 3-40-1 in the four seasons before Bill Snyder took over, when it was generally considered the worst program in the history of college football and people talked about shutting it down. Since the start of 2010, kansas is 15-81. If the Jayhawks can manage to lose 19 games in the next two seasons, they'll be the first program in college football history to lose 100 games in a 10-year span.
Illinois isn't quite that bad. The Illini are 16-33 in the last four seasons, including 7-26 in Big Ten play. But their problem is, they're actually getting worse. Steadily. Four years ago, Illinois finished 6-6 in the regular season and slipped to 6-7 because of a loss in the Heart of Dallas bowl. They fired Tim Beckman under a cloud of controversy and Bill Cubit went 5-7 in 2015. Since riding in to save the program, Lovie Smith has gone 3-9 in 2016 and 2-10 this year. That's not the trajectory you're looking for.
5. Your most overrated team in college football for 2017 (aka Champions of Life but not much else) is Tennessee. The Vols lost 42-24 to Vanderbilt on Saturday, capping a 4-8/0-8 campaign. We forget this team started the season in the top 25 because, well, pre-season rankings are dumb as hell. The Vols somehow beat Georgia Tech to start the season. The Jackets did finish the season just 5-6, but still, that's a bit of a surprising outcome. The other wins this season were Indiana State, UMASS and Southern Miss. Good thing Jon Gruden's gonna come save them all!
6. Louisville/Kentucky continues to be the most underrated rivalry in college sports. The Cardinals destroyed the Wildcats on Saturday (after a 6-2 start, Kentucky finished 7-5). But that wasn't the part anybody here cares about. There was a fight and, well, I venture to say I've never seen this:
7. My predictions for who lands where in the craziest coaching carousel in a while:
Nebraska: Scott Frost
Florida: Dan Mullen
Tennessee: Willie Taggart
Arkansas: Mike Norvell
Texas A&M: Chad Morris
Arizona State: Kevin Sumlin
8. My Heisman ballot as of today:
1. Lamar Jackson, Louisville
2. Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma
3. Bryce Love, Stanford
Darkhorse who won't win it but should get some votes: Jonathan Taylor, Wisconsin
9. The playoff if it started today:
1. Clemson
2. Oklahoma
3. Auburn
4. Wisconsin
Other teams still alive: Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Miami. The four teams above are in if they win. Georgia will be in if it beats Auburn. Ohio State needs to beat Wisconsin convincingly and probably needs TCU to beat Oklahoma because if the Sooners and Clemson win, I think one-loss Alabama would get in over two-loss Ohio State (but I'm not positive of it). I don't think Miami can get back in. But there might be some crazy scenario where it happens.
The SEC's best shot at two teams is Oklahoma and Clemson losing next weekend. Nobody other than the eight teams I've listed here has a chance to get in.
10. Six games to watch this weekend:
PAC-12 title game: Stanford vs USC, 7 pm Friday, ESPN
AAC title game: Memphis at UCF, 11 am Saturday, ABC: Winner's probably in the playoff access bowls
Big 12 title game: TCU vs Oklahoma, 1130 am Saturday, Fox
SEC title game: Georgia vs Auburn, 3 pm Saturday, CBS
ACC title game: Miami vs Clemson, 7 pm Saturday, ABC
Big Ten title game: Ohio State vs Wisconsin, 7 pm Saturday, Fox
2. The similarities to 2007 are eerie. 2007 is generally considered the craziest college football season ever. 2017 is doing a hell of an imitation. I mean, the top two teams in the country lose the final weekend of the regular season (back then it was LSU and kansas, now it's Bama and Miami), Pittsburgh pulls an upset that shakes up everything (West Virginia, Miami), two-loss Ohio State might be the biggest beneficiary of all of it and Oklahoma is just sitting there lurking as potentially the best team in the country except for an inexplicable loss (this year it's Iowa State, in 2007 it was Colorado). Fun, fun seasons, both of them. Obviously the only difference here is that Missouri isn't involved in the fun this time.
3. Speaking of Ohio State, JT Barrett got hurt by a cameraman in warmups and then aggravated the injury and had to leave the Buckeyes' win over Michigan. So JK Dobbins ran for 100 yards and Dwayne Haskins Jr. stepped in and led the way to a win. This is life at Ohio State: If your starter gets hurt, you put in a backup most people haven't heard of who just so happens to be a four-star, top 100 player from a couple years ago. And I never root for Ohio State, but it is fun to see Michigan start the season in the top ten talking about the playoff and end up 8-4 with its best win of the season being Purdue.
4. If kansas and Illinois played would a giant sinkhole just open up and swallow everything? The Jayhawks lost 58-17 to Oklahoma State. They are 1-11 this year, 0-9 in the Big 12. In the last four years, they are 6-42 (that is bolstered by a high water mark of 3-9 in Charlie Weis' last season), including 2-34 in Big 12 play. For some perspective, Kansas State was 3-40-1 in the four seasons before Bill Snyder took over, when it was generally considered the worst program in the history of college football and people talked about shutting it down. Since the start of 2010, kansas is 15-81. If the Jayhawks can manage to lose 19 games in the next two seasons, they'll be the first program in college football history to lose 100 games in a 10-year span.
Illinois isn't quite that bad. The Illini are 16-33 in the last four seasons, including 7-26 in Big Ten play. But their problem is, they're actually getting worse. Steadily. Four years ago, Illinois finished 6-6 in the regular season and slipped to 6-7 because of a loss in the Heart of Dallas bowl. They fired Tim Beckman under a cloud of controversy and Bill Cubit went 5-7 in 2015. Since riding in to save the program, Lovie Smith has gone 3-9 in 2016 and 2-10 this year. That's not the trajectory you're looking for.
5. Your most overrated team in college football for 2017 (aka Champions of Life but not much else) is Tennessee. The Vols lost 42-24 to Vanderbilt on Saturday, capping a 4-8/0-8 campaign. We forget this team started the season in the top 25 because, well, pre-season rankings are dumb as hell. The Vols somehow beat Georgia Tech to start the season. The Jackets did finish the season just 5-6, but still, that's a bit of a surprising outcome. The other wins this season were Indiana State, UMASS and Southern Miss. Good thing Jon Gruden's gonna come save them all!
6. Louisville/Kentucky continues to be the most underrated rivalry in college sports. The Cardinals destroyed the Wildcats on Saturday (after a 6-2 start, Kentucky finished 7-5). But that wasn't the part anybody here cares about. There was a fight and, well, I venture to say I've never seen this:
7. My predictions for who lands where in the craziest coaching carousel in a while:
Nebraska: Scott Frost
Florida: Dan Mullen
Tennessee: Willie Taggart
Arkansas: Mike Norvell
Texas A&M: Chad Morris
Arizona State: Kevin Sumlin
8. My Heisman ballot as of today:
1. Lamar Jackson, Louisville
2. Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma
3. Bryce Love, Stanford
Darkhorse who won't win it but should get some votes: Jonathan Taylor, Wisconsin
9. The playoff if it started today:
1. Clemson
2. Oklahoma
3. Auburn
4. Wisconsin
Other teams still alive: Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Miami. The four teams above are in if they win. Georgia will be in if it beats Auburn. Ohio State needs to beat Wisconsin convincingly and probably needs TCU to beat Oklahoma because if the Sooners and Clemson win, I think one-loss Alabama would get in over two-loss Ohio State (but I'm not positive of it). I don't think Miami can get back in. But there might be some crazy scenario where it happens.
The SEC's best shot at two teams is Oklahoma and Clemson losing next weekend. Nobody other than the eight teams I've listed here has a chance to get in.
10. Six games to watch this weekend:
PAC-12 title game: Stanford vs USC, 7 pm Friday, ESPN
AAC title game: Memphis at UCF, 11 am Saturday, ABC: Winner's probably in the playoff access bowls
Big 12 title game: TCU vs Oklahoma, 1130 am Saturday, Fox
SEC title game: Georgia vs Auburn, 3 pm Saturday, CBS
ACC title game: Miami vs Clemson, 7 pm Saturday, ABC
Big Ten title game: Ohio State vs Wisconsin, 7 pm Saturday, Fox
