With a week to go in the regular season, the field has been cut to 9 legit possible teams to win the National Title. BOLD ARE IN ELIMINATION MODE THIS WEEK
1Alabama 11-0
2Clemson 11-0
3Notre Dame 11-0
4Michigan 10-1
5Georgia 10-1
6Oklahoma 10-1
7Washington State 10-1
8UCF 10-0
9Ohio State 10-1
120 other teams are out of contention.
________________________________________________
If we had an 8 team playoff and there were automatic bids for P5 conference champs, we would have some playoff games this week:
ACC - Clemson vs Pitt (Champ Gm)
B12 - West Virginia vs Oklahoma, Texas can essentially play themselves out of the championship game with a loss @ KU.
B10 - Michigan vs Ohio State is already a play-in game with the current format. Northwestern is awaiting the winner.
P12 - Washington State vs Utah (Champ Gm)
SEC - Alabama vs Georgia (Champ Gm)
This would nearly double the field to 14 potential national champs.
_______________________________________________
I would argue that that weekend does not justify any college "madness" or December "Delirium"!!!
If we got the other D1 conferences involved like we do every other sport, we could have a 16-team bracket (a full round shy of all other NCAA FB leagues). Here are the important games for the other automatic bids:
AAC - Houston @ Memphis, winner plays UCF
C-USA - FIU/MTSU/Marshall vs UAB (this wk: FIU vs Marshall / MTSU vs UAB)
MAC - BUFF / OHIO / MIAMI (OH) vs Northern Illinois
M-WEST - UTAH ST vs BOISE ST winner plays Fresno St
S-BELT - Troy @ App St / in the wild west: Ark St / Lousiana / UL Monroe
This would give us a pretty round number at 32 teams left to win it all and a whole lot more fun at the end of the season.