Alabama quietly dominates college football’s national title race

They’ll get at least one more chance in another few weeks, and if they do things right the Tigers will end up on the biggest stage of all for the second year. Both are now on the outside in the playoff rankings. Their job is identifying the four best teams in the country. As a result, we have to give a lot of credit to coach Dabo Swinney for his ability to keep his team focused on the task at hand.

The Buckeyes will get in the playoff based on ranking alone.

Petersen said he’s aware of Alabama’s capabilities as a team, even if he’s only watched them on a limited basis this season.

In this scenario, Alabama and Ohio State are definitely in. This means that there’s the potential for three (!) Big Ten teams in the four-team Playoff.

BYU (8-4) accepted a bid to this year’s Poinsettia Bowl back in November 2013 – and will also be there in 2018, provided the Cougars aren’t in the College Football Playoff that season. “They have some outstanding players on offense and defense and have put up some fantastic numbers in terms of their ability on both offense, defense and special teams”. Their demolishing of Colorado on Friday night makes a strong case. That group will release the four-team bracket to decide this year’s national champion, and it’s a lock that Alabama will be the No. 1 seed. The committee would have had to undermine their own credibility of ranking Washington where they did all season to unseat them.

Most college football series are scheduled many years in advance.

Still, without forecasting the outcomes of championship Saturday, we can definitely conclude that the committee’s directives are cloudier than ever. USC didn’t win its conference or division but has two better wins – Washington and Colorado – than anything on Oklahoma’s résumé. The committee will probably keep them at number 3. The losses to Iowa and OSU killed any hope of them playing in the tournament. The Big 12 board has agreed to reinstate a championship game in 2017, however.

The Huskies, like the other teams in the top four, had the best record among the teams in the debate. So, in short, did the committee get it right?

So my top 4 when all said and done would look like this: 1. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. CT. The victory boosted Penn State from afterthought to the thick of the championship race.

“Conference championships are hard to win”, Hocutt said. That would leave OSU and MI on the outside looking in.

Alabama (13-0) would get that elusive 15th win by successfully defending its national championship. I think overall, just the overall team speed is different. Bama, 2. OSU, 3. It featured one of the great BCS cherry-picking arguments between the Huskies, Miami and Florida State.

Let’s rephrase that for added emphasis: The champion of the nation’s best league was trumped by the league’s runner-up, and defeated that same team during the regular season.