BAMANEWSBOT
Staff
We got visions of non-traditional powers making runs. Now it's looking like three of the four Playoff teams are going to be exactly who we predicted, with the best team the same as most of the previous five years.
Somewhere around October and November each year, we decide that this college football season is abnormally silly and ridiculous. That's because, outside of your top-tier elite teams, anybody can lose to anybody. And a couple of elite teams fall victim to what-the-hell-was-that performances.
Abnormal is actually normal. Such is the beautiful nature of college football: you can dot every "i" and cross every "t," and you're still going to be relying on 18- to 22-year-old males doing what they've been asked to do. As a retired five-year veteran of being an 18- to 22-year-old male, I can say that this is impossible.
The reason the 2014 season has felt sillier than most is because the top tier has been more infected than normal by the sport's random silliness. Or there just hasn't been a top tier. Last week, odds suggested that the only two remaining major-conference undefeateds, Mississippi State and Florida State, might both lose in Week 12*. If that had happened, it would have taken us to a level of win-loss parity that we hadn't seen since either 1990 or 1984.
* Of course, odds were more in favor of the two going 1-1. Alabama had a 68 percent chance of beating Mississippi State, and Miami had a 61 percent chance of beating Florida State, but that meant that there was only a 41 percent chance that both Alabama and Miami would win and a 50 percent chance that one would.
So yes, this season has actually been wild. Ohio State and Duke are 17-1 against teams not named Virginia Tech, but both lost at home to the Hokies, who lost at home to East Carolina, Miami, and Boston College. Georgia got stomped by Florida, which got stomped by Missouri, which got stomped by Georgia; Georgia also just stomped Auburn, which lost to Texas A&M, which lost to Missouri.
But amid the chaos, two things make this season seem downright redundant: Florida State is still undefeated, and Alabama might be the best team.
Sure, there are some non-traditional teams threatening to gum up the works. TCU survived an awful performance at Kansas, Baylor should be right next to TCU in Tuesday's Playoff rankings, Mississippi State isn't going to fall far after losing at Alabama, and some old-schoolers might call Oregon a non-traditional power. Still, while there may not be a truly dominant team, and while Alabama may not meet its 2011 and 2012 standards, the Tide are either at or near the top of the pack.
http://www.rollbamaroll.com/?utm_source=sbnation&utm_medium=bloglinks&utm_campaign=blogs
SBNation reports...
Somewhere around October and November each year, we decide that this college football season is abnormally silly and ridiculous. That's because, outside of your top-tier elite teams, anybody can lose to anybody. And a couple of elite teams fall victim to what-the-hell-was-that performances.
Abnormal is actually normal. Such is the beautiful nature of college football: you can dot every "i" and cross every "t," and you're still going to be relying on 18- to 22-year-old males doing what they've been asked to do. As a retired five-year veteran of being an 18- to 22-year-old male, I can say that this is impossible.
The reason the 2014 season has felt sillier than most is because the top tier has been more infected than normal by the sport's random silliness. Or there just hasn't been a top tier. Last week, odds suggested that the only two remaining major-conference undefeateds, Mississippi State and Florida State, might both lose in Week 12*. If that had happened, it would have taken us to a level of win-loss parity that we hadn't seen since either 1990 or 1984.
* Of course, odds were more in favor of the two going 1-1. Alabama had a 68 percent chance of beating Mississippi State, and Miami had a 61 percent chance of beating Florida State, but that meant that there was only a 41 percent chance that both Alabama and Miami would win and a 50 percent chance that one would.
So yes, this season has actually been wild. Ohio State and Duke are 17-1 against teams not named Virginia Tech, but both lost at home to the Hokies, who lost at home to East Carolina, Miami, and Boston College. Georgia got stomped by Florida, which got stomped by Missouri, which got stomped by Georgia; Georgia also just stomped Auburn, which lost to Texas A&M, which lost to Missouri.
But amid the chaos, two things make this season seem downright redundant: Florida State is still undefeated, and Alabama might be the best team.
Sure, there are some non-traditional teams threatening to gum up the works. TCU survived an awful performance at Kansas, Baylor should be right next to TCU in Tuesday's Playoff rankings, Mississippi State isn't going to fall far after losing at Alabama, and some old-schoolers might call Oregon a non-traditional power. Still, while there may not be a truly dominant team, and while Alabama may not meet its 2011 and 2012 standards, the Tide are either at or near the top of the pack.
http://www.rollbamaroll.com/?utm_source=sbnation&utm_medium=bloglinks&utm_campaign=blogs
SBNation reports...
