COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF : THE REACTION

Now I know this is and will typically be a debate blog, but Jalynn and I wanted to put our differences aside for a moment and just give our quick reactions to the 1^st ever college football playoff. We’ll be back arguing in no time!

Now that the BCS system has been put to rest, college football fans of America were on the edge of their seats awaiting the results of the first ever College Football Playoff rankings. And the results look like this.

Alabama v.s. THE Ohio State University and Oregon v.s. the defending national champions Florida State! But I ask you, was that the right call?

I want to take a second to focus on who DIDN’T get in. My thoughts and prayers go out to the team, fan base, and students of TCU. You know when that pretty girl you’ve had your eye on for awhile tells you that you can take her out this weekend? All week long she’s calling and texting and telling you how much she likes you and the weekend comes and you find out at the last second that she’s out with another guy. That’s how TCU feels right now! Terrible pain, heck, I’ve lived it! How a team can be ranked number 3 in the country, go out and win by 52 points and drop to number 6 is beyond me! If the committee was going to move Baylor ahead of TCU, it should have been done weeks ago to avoid all this.  Like the pretty girl mentioned above, she could have given you a heads up! (But I promise I’m over that). Anyways, we all know Baylor beat TCU in a game when TCU was up 21 in the 4^th quarter, relaxed and allowed Baylor back in to steal the victory. I can’t advocate for Baylor. In last week’s blog, I gave advice to Florida State. Well Baylor, here’s yours. PLAY SOMEBODY!! Don’t schedule Northwestern State, SMU, and Buffalo for your non-conference schedule. You reap what you sow!! My advice to TCU? Well when you’re up 21 in the 4^th quarter, CLOSE THE DEAL.

Enough about who didn’t get in. Florida State has a chance to shut the world up and I am quietly rooting for the Seminoles. I mean come on, aren't we all anxious for another Jameis Winston championship speech?! This year’s expected Heisman winner Marcus Mariota is eager to finally get that elusive championship ring before he heads off to the NFL. In the other matchup, you have in my opinion the 2 best coaches in the land of college football with 2 great traditions and teams. I don’t care what Cardale Jones did last night. A 2^nd start against a Nick Saban defense is a different ballgame. Like or love the new College Football Playoff system, the committee has given us some outstanding matchups to watch New Year’s Day, and there’s nothing better to do as you get over that New Year’s eve hangover than watch college football!

-Derrick

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m happy for the committee. I think in many ways they made up for mistakes they’ve made in previous weeks. They weren’t afraid of the backlash that would be caused by doing the right thing and dropping TCU from a spot that they shouldn’t have had in the first place.

So I can change my stance from the last post a little bit and say, the committee got it right!!……sort of. They were correct in a sense of selecting the best and deserving teams. After reading my last post, you guys know who I believe should be #1. My position on that matter has not changed at all.

But anyway, in the fight for that last spot, of course an argument can be made for Baylor but the statement that Ohio State made by winning their championship game by 60 points (59 if you want to be technical) with their 3RD STRING QUARTERBACK could not simply be ignored. Just think about that, the guy on your roster that probably isn’t on a full scholarship, led your team to an absolute rout of a top 15 team in the country. That is a huge testament to how complete your team is, much more impressive than beating a 2 win Iowa State team by 50. Baylor definitely has a little more of a beef than TCU since they have very similar schedules and Baylor owns the head-to-head. When you look at Baylor’s resume versus Ohio State, the first thing that I think you should evaluate are their losses. Baylor lost to a 7-5 West Virginia team that, other than Baylor, has no other wins that jump out at you. They did hang tough with both TCU and Kansas State, but those were both home games  for WVU so that’s somewhat expected. Ohio State lost to Virginia Tech, who’s 6-6. Nothing impressive about the Hokies whatsoever, but they did catch Ohio State at the right time. 2nd week of the season with a brand new quarterback and 4 new offensive linemen. No excuses, I just don’t think there’s enough separation between West Virginia and Virginia Tech to use those as the barometer. So this is where all of the human elements come into play. The eye-test, team situations, judging the body of work etc. And after last night, I don’t think there’s any question as to which team wins when it comes to those factors. Ohio State, without a doubt, looks like one of the top 4 teams in the country. I hope the Tide has a 6-5” 250lb QB that can flat out move and a pretty good arm to prepare for what’s coming their way in New Orleans. Because if not, they might not get an opportunity to give us the matchup that has evaded us longer than Pacquiao-Mayweather…… Alabama/Oregon.

As for TCU and Baylor, I hope your school Presidents and Athletic Directors are on the phone with all of the Big 12 participants. They should be halfway to the commissioner’s house by now DEMANDING a conference championship game. Because if not, you can get used to this happening time and time again.

-Jalynn