Sunday, November 27, 2016

Playoffs? You Talkin' 'Bout Playoffs?

Penn State won the East Division Championship in the Big Ten yesterday. That's remarkable to me. I thought James Franklin was as good as fired after losing to Pitt, and certainly around halftime of the Temple game. Instead, he's got Penn State on the cusp of a playoff berth in college football, and a return to glory that was supposed to take a very, very long time.

Should Penn State get in? My answer right now, despite my bias towards them, is no. My top four going into next week is:

  1. Alabama
  2. Clemson
  3. Ohio State
  4. Washington
Now, if any of them do lose, I would absolutely put the winner of Penn State-Wisconsin into the playoffs. With that said, none of this is a reflection of who I think should get in if we just wanted the best teams- Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, and whoever wins the Big Ten title game. I just don't think you can jump two loss Penn State over one loss Clemson or Washington, just because their conference is better. None of this is fair by the way, since Ohio State both lost to Penn State and won't win their conference. Even so though, with one loss, they have a better argument against the out-of-conference teams.

What if two teams lose though? This would bring Michigan, Oklahoma, and Colorado back into the conversation, right? Not really. I could take Colorado or Michigan, but Oklahoma really has no business escaping bad early losses to Houston and Ohio State, both of which were convincing. If Washington or Clemson loses, Penn State and Wisconsin should be a play-in game. If both lose, I'd give Colorado the nod for beating Washington to get in, over Michigan. If Alabama loses though, it gets really fun. Hopefully that won't happen. 

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