Say what you will about the current state of college athletics in the United States. But it cannot be denied that there are few other sporting activities that generate the same level of emotion, both positive and negative, from fans.
This was clear on a recent college football weekend, which featured everything from excitement on the field to angry debris throwing. Hence, overreaction was inevitable considering such fervor. We’re here once again to pick apart some of the programs involving big names, and hopefully provide a little big picture perspective.
Here are the top five overreactions from Week 8.
Alabama’s playoff chances are ripe
It’s true that the Crimson Tide’s SEC championship hopes are likely gone with a second league loss. However, there may still be a path to an expanded 12-team playoff.
Alabama’s final three games in November are quite winnable. One of those games is against Championship Subdivision member Mercer, and the final two league games are against Oklahoma and Auburn, teams that are in even greater disarray as of this writing.
It’s a pair of games over the next three weekends that will tell Alabama’s story – a home game against Missouri next Saturday and a Nov. 9 trip to LSU. If the Tide wins both, they’ll have a pretty clear path to 10-2 with a win against Georgia also in the cards, a resume that would almost certainly be considered playoff-worthy. A split between the two and a final result of 9-3 would make things even more ambiguous.
Whether Alabama can actually win the title if put in a big bracket is a discussion for another day, but for now we’ll have to wait and see how things play out in a few weeks. We understand that patience isn’t a quality in abundance for many fan bases, but don’t write off the Tide just yet.
Texas is back – to mediocrity.
It didn’t take long for the college football world to go from anointing the Longhorns as title favorites to wondering if they weren’t ready for this new conference. As with many similar discussions, the truth probably lies somewhere between these two extremes.
As has been shown, the foundation on which the No. 1 ranking is built 1 Longhorns are not as strong as we would like to believe considering the ongoing struggles of Oklahoma and Michigan (more on the Wolverines below). However, it’s also true that Texas isn’t the first team to be humbled by a meeting with a motivated Georgia squad. Remember how the post mortem for Clemson was written after Week 1?
In short, we’ll wait and see how Texas responds to its first bump, starting next week with a visit to suddenly mercurial Vanderbilt.
SADNESS INDEX:Oklahoma tops the most miserable fan bases after Week 8
HIGH AND LOW:Georgia, Alabama headline Week 8 winners and losers
Indiana will win the Big Ten
Most people probably didn’t believe Curt Cignetti when he made that bold statement while accepting the head coaching gig at Bloomington. But lo and behold the Hoosiers have kept things under control on their way to the 7-0 start that has now caught everyone’s attention.
There was just one very small problem. The penultimate week of the season involves a trip to Ohio State. We’re in no way saying a win in Columbus is impossible. But if the Hoosiers fail to accomplish that, they would lose a head-to-head tiebreaker with the Buckeyes for a spot in the conference title game, assuming both teams win their remaining games. There’s no Penn State or Oregon on Indiana’s schedule, which is a plus because all their other contests are winnable, but a minus because there’s no chance to offset a potential Buckeyes loss.
Now with all that being said, the Hoosiers have a great chance of making the playoffs if they make it to the finish line at 11-1. This may seem overly ambitious for a program that has only had success on the gridiron in its history, but we shouldn’t be surprised if this actually happens.
Michigan could miss out on a single bowl
On the other side of Big Ten expectations, we find the Wolverines, the defending national champions who have just failed to find any kind of offensive identity.
Aside from a home date with Northwestern, Michigan’s November slate is truly a killer matchup in the new-look conference. The Wolverines will be underdogs against Oregon, Indiana and Ohio State, even with the Ducks and Buckeyes coming to Ann Arbor. This makes next week’s rivalry game against Michigan State a must-win if the Wolverines hope to reach the six-win threshold for bowl eligibility. Of course the Spartans won’t have much sympathy for the challenging second-half schedule ahead of them. But Michigan State has made progress under coach Jonathan Smith in recent weeks, and the Spartans will come into the Big House with confidence after showing they can solve a tough defense like Iowa’s. This won’t be at the top of your must-watch list for next week, but it’s a game to keep an eye on, especially if you’re the organizer of a bowling game with a Big Ten series.
Cougar Puzzle
30 for 30 votes: What if I told you that there was a team that does not currently have an FBS conference affiliation with a good chance of going 11-1 – and it wasn’t Notre Dame? Of course, the Fighting Irish could get there too. But there are other non-affiliated teams that could provide the CFP with interesting case examples.
Washington State, of the upcoming Pac-12, has gone 6-1 with the only blemish coming against Boise State. That would be the same Broncos squad that is within field goal range of the current No. 1 team. In addition to a hard-fought Apple Cup win against former league foe Washington, the Cougars also have another Power Five win against Texas Tech in their column.
But now comes the bad news for the Cougars. That Texas Tech result lost its value over the weekend when the Red Raiders were defeated at home by Baylor for their first Big 12 loss. None of Washington State’s remaining opponents add much to its strength of schedule tally. It would help the Cougars’ cause if Boise State makes the playoffs, but it might require help from Notre Dame in the form of knocking Navy and Army off their undefeated ranks. Those results would in turn increase the Fighting Irish’s credibility as a candidate in general, at the expense of the Cougars and others.
Right now, Washington State will need a lot of downtime to get consideration. But total chaos always seems to happen in this sport, so Palouse fans should stay tuned.
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