No. 3 Ohio State to play No. 2 Clemson in Fiesta Bowl
Penn State, which beat Ohio State, claimed the Big Ten with a win over Wisconsin in the conference title game on Saturday, but the Nittany Lions missed out on the playoffs due to their two losses this year. It’s the same lesson the BCS taught us. In fact, he specifically says, “We didn’t have a team that was a likely participant in the playoff, and so from that standpoint it doesn’t make a lot of difference to us this year”.
The Valley View grad suffered his second major knee injury back in September and missed the majority of the last two seasons because of the ensuing surgeries and rehab.
“We looked at key statistical categories, which translates to performance on the field each and every week”, Hocutt said in an ESPN interview. So they get the nod. “Are they only used as tiebreakers, or is it other metrics?” The wins and losses are still the first thing you see.
Ohio State will be playing in the Fiesta Bowl for the second time in 2016. If Clemson or Washington loses, chaos could ensue.
None of that matters.
Penn State (11-2) rallied to defeat Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship on Saturday.
None of that matters either. The Seminoles are a top-10 ranked team in the AP and coaches poll, sitting at No. 10 in both.
MI has two losses.
Regardless, Penn State is sure to feel as if they were robbed. The 45-24 win over the Sooners came on the road.
Of course, first and foremost, Penn State must take care of business Saturday night. Why not guarantee big-time ratings in the semis by putting the Tide and Buckeyes in one game?
West Virginia has two losses.
It’s the only time it can be said that a team had to settle to play in the Rose Bowl. They’ve won their last four games by an average of 28 points and don’t seem to be slowing down.
Hancock said expansion of the playoff is not up for consideration by the conference commissioners.
The other New Year’s Six matchups go like this: MI against Florida State in the Orange Bowl, Penn State against USC in the Rose Bowl and Auburn against Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl. The Pac-12 has been involved in the playoff two out of the three years, missing out last season. The Trojans lost by 46 to Alabama.
The Tide led 33-16 at halftime – the most points ever scored in the first two quarters of an SEC title game – and iced the victory with scoring drives of 98 and 91 yards against the overmatched Gators, who are 8-4.
Paul Chryst had a heck of a season and his team exceeded expectations if you look at the type of quarterbacks the Badgers had to work with. Both games are on New Year’s Eve. All the conference champions get an automatic berth.
The Huskies have been knocked all season for an out-of-conference strength of schedule that ranks 127th out of 128 FBS teams. The Sooners did something we’ve never seen before in the Big 12’s 10-team era by steamrolling the league with a flawless 9-0 run featuring 430 points and few close calls. However it shakes out, teams worthy of consideration in the final four will get left out.
Speaking on the ESPN selection show, Hocutt said the committee chose the Huskies for the No. 4 seed over the Nittany Lions because “the selection committee believes they’re a better football team”.
No. 15 Western Michigan vs.
That’s going to raise a few more questions. Why did they not go to eight? “This move will strengthen the resumes for all Big 12 teams”. What the hell does “best very-best teams” mean if everybody has a different “eye test?” Wins and losses still count for something, maybe more than we think.
I’m Steve Inskeep here to help you argue about something other than politics – college football.