2016 - 2017 College Football Playoff and Bowls

[ljbab728]

There seems to be little doubt that our local OU and OSU teams will end up in the Sugar and Alamo Bowls respectively and the likely opponents are Auburn and Colorado. Anything can happen, but those teams aren't as daunting as some they have faced recently.

Penn State certainly gave the playoff committee something to think about before making their final decision. Should they put in Ohio State over a team that they lost to and who also won their conference championship? Alabama, Clemson, and Washington seem to be safely in.

[Martin]

agreed... if there is any question, it's penn state or ohio state. if i had to bet, i'd think that ohio state gets the nod with their one loss and larger fan base.

[ljbab728]

agreed... if there is any question, it's penn state or ohio state. if i had to bet, i'd think that ohio state gets the nod with their one loss and larger fan base.

I have little doubt it will be Ohio State over Penn State but it calls into question what criteria they are using to make their decisions. I think things like this are what will hasten an eventual 8 team playoff. With that they can virtually guarantee that the champion of all 5 major conferences will be in along with the best of the rest.

[Eric]

So three seasons of the playoff and one nod for the Big 12. ACC has been in every year. It seems that the SEC and Big 10 will likely be a lock every year no matter what. Can only imagine the crying if one of those two were left out. It appears that the final spot each year is going to come down to whomever had a better champ between the Pac 12 and Big 12. Pretty sad.

[Bill Robertson]

OU would have been the Big 12 team to be in the playoffs. The 4 teams that are there deserve it more than we do. And I don't like saying that. They all have better records. Alabama is, well, Alabama. Ohio State beat us. Washington had a great season ending with looking very good against Colorado. Clemson was 2 points from being unbeaten. Which of these four should be out to make a place for OU?

[ljbab728]

Baylor got the Big 12 off to an unexpected good start tonight with a dominating win over a Boise State team that was a touchdown favorite. Especially unexpected was holding Boise to one touchdown and 12 points after giving up a ton of points in the Big 12.

[ljbab728]

It's a mixed bag for the Big 12 today as West Virginia laid an absolute egg on both offense and defense in loosing to Miami. And K State made the Big 12 undefeated so far in the bowls against the SEC in their win over the Aggies.

[chuck5815]

KSU looked pretty solid. I wouldn't be surprised if Bill Snyder rides off into the sunset on that high note.

[ljbab728]

That was a very impressive performance tonight by OSU, especially on defense. How is that possible since all the national media assure us that the Big 12 can't play defense.

It should put OSU in the Top 10 in final polls. A lot can still happen, but the vaunted SEC is now 1 and 4 in bowls and the Big12 is 3 and 1. All of the Big 12 winners were underdogs.

[ljbab728]

The only surprise in the playoff is the ease with which Clemson dispatched Ohio State. I think the two best teams will be there. Loses by Michigan and Ohio State to Florida State and Clemson are now pointing towards the ACC being the best conference this year. The SEC is still up there but overall they aren't the best.

[OSUMom]

Ummm......

http://www.sbnation.com/college-foot...esta-bowl-2016

[ljbab728]

Another great Sugar Bowl win for OU over the SEC. So much for the SEC being more physical (at least as far as OU is concerned). Also the Rose Bowl was one for the ages. It was at least the best since Texas beat USC for the national title. Maybe the 52 to 49 score will have the national media concerned about the Pac !2 and Big 10 not playing any defense, instead of the Big 12.

[TexanOkie]

Bruce Feldman tweeted the points allowed per game for bowls for the Power Five:

Big12: 21.5
ACC: 22.3
SEC: 25.4
Pac12: 29.2
B1G: 29.8

Link to original tweet: https://twitter.com/BruceFeldmanCFB/...99461215256576

[Pete]

Funny how the Big XII defenses looked much better when they weren't playing high-powered offenses from their own conference.

[shadfar]

Samaje Perine announces he's entering NFL draft

Link

[OKCretro]

Although the Big12 numbers look good for the bowls remember that the big12 is playing down 1 slot per team. What I mean is that OU the #1 team in the big12 faced #2 SEC team. OSU #2 in big12 faced PAC12's #3 team.
Had OU faced Bama, and OSU faced USC, I think both outcomes would have been much different

[Eric]

Although the Big12 numbers look good for the bowls remember that the big12 is playing down 1 slot per team. What I mean is that OU the #1 team in the big12 faced #2 SEC team. OSU #2 in big12 faced PAC12's #3 team.
Had OU faced Bama, and OSU faced USC, I think both outcomes would have been much different

No.

Colorado #2 in Pac 12. Played in Conference Championship (it could be argued that USC was better, but Colorado won more conference games so...)
I thought most of the other teams were pretty evenly matched. The other conferences are much larger, so 3rd in ours is like 5th and 6th in some others.

Only OU "played down" by not getting a conference champ opponent.

[OKCretro]

No.

Colorado #2 in Pac 12. Played in Conference Championship (it could be argued that USC was better, but Colorado won more conference games so...)
I thought most of the other teams were pretty evenly matched. The other conferences are much larger, so 3rd in ours is like 5th and 6th in some others.

Only OU "played down" by not getting a conference champ opponent.

COL was the #3 school in the PAC 12 period. Playing in the conference championship game doesn't make you automatically #2.

[Bellaboo]

Washington finished first in the North Division at 8-1. But they made the Championship series.

Colorado finished first in the South Division at 8-1.

USC finished second in the South Division at 7-2.

Not sure, but the polls had USC at 9 and Colorado at 10, probably due to the conference championship loss to Washington ? This may have been what determined which bowl they played in.

[Eric]

Washington finished first in the North Division at 8-1. But they made the Championship series.

Colorado finished first in the South Division at 8-1.

USC finished second in the South Division at 7-2.

Not sure, but the polls had USC at 9 and Colorado at 10, probably due to the conference championship loss to Washington ? This may have been what determined which bowl they played in.

The week prior to that loss to Washington, Colorado was 8 in the CFP and USC was 11. Basically flipped the next week, and the Rose Bowl committee largely uses the CFP poll to determine it's selections.

It's obviously difficult to determine who is "playing better now", but Colorado on the whole had a better season. Had losses to a highly ranked Michigan & USC team up to the Bowl Season. While USC had losses a dominant Alabama, and then what turned out to be losses to two teams that finished third in their respective divisions of the Pac 12. Generally speaking I wouldn't think that qualifies you for the Rose Bowl, but it must have been a rough year for the Pac 12 as well. I seem to think parity is setting in a bit, outside of two schools. The Pac 12 has teams like Colorado and Washington leading the way. Big 12 has had runs from Baylor and TCU. Makes it more interesting. And that much harder to keep your gig as a coach I would bet.

[SoonerDave]

Big 12 acquitted itself very well in the bowls this year. WVa really showed itself to be a bit of fool's gold, however. Miami really handled them, although I strongly suspect they put a *lot* of their emotional eggs as it were into the basket of playing OU, and OU dismantled them fairly easily. I think they kinda phoned things in after that.

I don't think you'd find too many teams playing significantly better than OU as the season ended. Amid all the discussion about bad B12 defenses, which I'm not saying is entirely unwarranted, it was gratifying to see a Rose Bowl with a Pac12/Big10 matchup rolling up 101 points.

I don't know what in the world happened to Ohio State, but it seems they played their very best game against us and went downhill the rest of the year. Who in the world would have predicted a 31-0 blowout loss to Clemson???

[Spartan]

COL was the #3 school in the PAC 12 period. Playing in the conference championship game doesn't make you automatically #2.

Colorado was passed up by USC bc they were hot and have more fans. This is how bowl selection works.

[ljbab728]

The King is dead. Congrats to Clemson for knocking off Bama in a great championship game.

[dcsooner]

Brent Venables is a championship DC. Congratulations to him, and boo OU we got stuck with Mikey

[dcsooner]

Big 12 acquitted itself very well in the bowls this year. WVa really showed itself to be a bit of fool's gold, however. Miami really handled them, although I strongly suspect they put a *lot* of their emotional eggs as it were into the basket of playing OU, and OU dismantled them fairly easily. I think they kinda phoned things in after that.

I don't think you'd find too many teams playing significantly better than OU as the season ended. Amid all the discussion about bad B12 defenses, which I'm not saying is entirely unwarranted, it was gratifying to see a Rose Bowl with a Pac12/Big10 matchup rolling up 101 points.

I don't know what in the world happened to Ohio State, but it seems they played their very best game against us and went downhill the rest of the year. Who in the world would have predicted a 31-0 blowout loss to Clemson???

Nothing happened to Ohio St. OU sucks in big games against quality (non b12) opponents. Clemson kicked our arses twice, badly or did you forget. Several teams not 8-4 would have beaten OU