🏈 Undefeated Team Watch

[It Takes Eleven]

If the ESPN conference standings page is up to date, I count 17 undefeated teams remaining in the BCS:

PAC 12 - 3 (Oregon, UCLA, AZ)
Big 10 - 1 - NE
Independents - 2 (ND, BYU)
C-USA - 1 (Marshall)
Big 12 3 - (OK, Baylor, TCU)
ACC - 2 (GaTech, FSU)
SEC - 5 - All From the West (Bama, aubrun, MSU, Ole Miss, aTm

With four of the undefeated SEC teams meeting next week, at least two will fall next week. GaTech and FSU do not meet during the regular season, but the ND/FSU game is setting up as a showdown. The PAC 12 undefeateds have a round-robin between them, as do the Big 12 teams. Marshall and BYU (no ranked opponents) don't have schedules to crack the top 4. I don't see The Fighting Pelinis getting past Michigan State.

In just one more week, we could have ten or fewer undefeated teams. I haven't checked, but it seems early for so many to be falling. It's a cinch that at least one one-loss team will make the playoff.

RTR,

Tim

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

And you'd have to think that with the SOS the SEC West teams have, they have the best shot of doing so. I'd hope teams like FSU would be out of luck if they lose 1 since they play a weak schedule, but this committee stuff is gonna be a cluster of incredible proportions, so I'm not counting on anything.

 

[alabama mike]

Marshall has a very good chance to run the table BUT strength of schedule is going to kill them.

Nebraska has an excellent shot in the very weak Big 10

Oklahoma is sitting pretty to be one of the four.

Just hoping anyone beats nd

 

[It Takes Eleven]

Marshall has a very good chance to run the table BUT strength of schedule is going to kill them.

Nebraska has an excellent shot in the very weak Big 10

Oklahoma is sitting pretty to be one of the four.

Just hoping anyone beats nd

Due to Shameis Fatigue, I could almost - almost - pull for ND against FSU.

Even though the Big 10 is very weak, I think Michigan State is far better than Nebraska and will get them.

 

[rick4bama]

Due to Shameis Fatigue, I could almost - almost - pull for ND against FSU.

Even though the Big 10 is very weak, I think Michigan State is far better than Nebraska and will get them.

Bite your tongue! :smh: Then again, I should bite my tongue too! :shock: Now that is bad when you don't like either team.

 

[alabama mike]

I will never, ever, pull for nd.

 

[252BAMA]

Win-win for Bama on FSU-ND. Winner is probably going to be in, so that is a win because Bama would beat either by 3-4 TDs. Loser is most assuredly going to be out, so that is a win for Bama.

 

[TerryP]

Win-win for Bama on FSU-ND. Winner is probably going to be in, so that is a win because Bama would beat either by 3-4 TDs. Loser is most assuredly going to be out, so that is a win for Bama.

I might be pointing out the obvious here...but one of the reasons this is a win-win for Bama is ND can't scoot around the selections due to an independent status any longer.

—————

On a different note:

I know, we're only a third of the way through the season.

If you look at where the playoffs sit right now, you can see how two teams from the SEC could make it in—easily in fact.

One component is having the Eastern division field weak teams. It's easy to see how we could have the eastern rep in ATL with three losses and out of the playoffs.

Let's assume this...Bama wins out, Ole Miss has one loss. That would likely drop them to around [HASHTAG]#15[/HASHTAG]. As it stands today, they'd have four ranked teams left on their schedule (two top 10.) The chances of them making it back to the top four by seasons end? They're reasonable.

I know you are thinking there's a lot of things that would have to fall into place for that to happen. I know, BUT we're only a third of the way through the season.

 

[mhardiman]

On a different note:

I know, we're only a third of the way through the season.

If you look at where the playoffs sit right now, you can see how two teams from the SEC could make it in—easily in fact.

One component is having the Eastern division field weak teams. It's easy to see how we could have the eastern rep in ATL with three losses and out of the playoffs.

Let's assume this...Bama wins out, Ole Miss has one loss. That would likely drop them to around [HASHTAG]#15[/HASHTAG]. As it stands today, they'd have four ranked teams left on their schedule (two top 10.) The chances of them making it back to the top four by seasons end? They're reasonable.

I know you are thinking there's a lot of things that would have to fall into place for that to happen. I know, BUT we're only a third of the way through the season.

Should in most years two SEC teams be in the top 4? Yes, but the BCS is gone and a selection committee is in. The selection committee is there to play "fair" and be "politically correct;" two teams from the SEC will not be in the playoff. We should have kept the BCS to select the 4 teams.

 

[psychojoe]

Should in most years two SEC teams be in the top 4? Yes, but the BCS is gone and a selection committee is in. The selection committee is there to play "fair" and be "politically correct;" two teams from the SEC will not be in the playoff. We should have kept the BCS to select the 4 teams.

I would not be too hard on the committee just yet. Basketball has used a selection committee for years, and although they have to take conference winners into the tournament they get the at large picks right. The diversity of the committee membership helps eliminate a lot of political correctness. One scenario that I picture will make their life difficult. The Big 12 has an undefeated champion. fsu, if they can beat ND at home, has a fairly easy path to an undefeated season. It is unlikely that there will be a no loss SEC team, since all the schools in the west play each other. Probably all the PAC 12 teams catch a loss. It will be tough for a B1g team to emerge with only one loss. If you were on the committee you would start out with say Baylor or Oklahoma. Even though they have been less than impressive so far, an undefeated FSU would be next to impossible to keep out. With so much of the SEC power concentrated in the west, it may be that the division winner has two losses, and unlikely that the west has two one loss teams. Say you the one loss SEC champ, and the one loss PAC 12 champ. No matter how putrid the Noles look the rest of the way, it would be impossible, should they win out, for the committee to take a two loss SEC team ahead of the undefeated and reigning national champs. Thankfully most of this will work itself out on the field.

As has been said, no matter how you pick the teams, someone isn't going to like it. The 5th place team will always think it should have been selected instead of the 4th place team. The BCS got it right almost every year it existed. I think that 2011 was the killer for the BCS, not because it did not get the two best teams, but because the two best teams were from the SEC.

2012 would have been a tough year for the new approach. Alabama and Notre Dame were easy. By any reasonable evaluation the next two teams were Florida and Georgia. Should this committee produce a selection resembling that one, in a year or so we would have yet another election process.

 

[TerryP]

I think that 2011 was the killer for the BCS, not because it did not get the two best teams, but because the two best teams were from the SEC.

Occasionally we'll get drawn into conversations about national championships and hear different points of view.

Two decades from now, someone will be discussing 2011 and call it a flawed championship. It'll happen. Why?

Here we were in the middle of the BCS era and people couldn't remember the system was designed to put #1 vs #2 on the field with each other.