With that in mind, I thought it was important that we highlight, not just this weekend’s data point, but the other important data point that got these teams to this all important moment. After all, these teams have the chance to lose another game that Notre Dame won’t! It’s important!

SEC

They could have two teams in the playoffs if Alabama pulls of the upset against Georgia. Just another show of strength from this powerhouse conference including:

• Georgia 56 – Charleston Southern 7
• Alabama 48 – Mercer 14

Honorable mention to Alabama’s 59-3 victory over New Mexico State as well. This is the kind of power you expect a legitimate two-loss playoff contender to have.

Big 12

Oklahoma State has already jumped Notre Dame and conference loving pundits would love for the committee to have a champion hop over Notre Dame as well. It’s easy to see with these victories:

• Baylor 66 – Texas Southern 7
• Oklahoma State 23 – Missouri State 16 (lol)

I, for one, am shocked Oklahoma and Texas are leaving a conference scheduling this kind of powerhouse out-of-conference on the regular.

*looks at above section*

Ah, so nothing has changed.

Big Ten

Kudos to you, Big Ten. No jokes here as you refuse to let your teams schedule FCS opponents. Well done.

Allow us to celebrate the extensive lists of all of Iowa’s ranked victories as that is something continuously held against the Irish: <null>

And of course, the massive amount of wins for Michigan: Ohio State…who was beaten by Oregon who was beaten by Stanford. In short, Michigan beat Stanford.

At least when these teams lost, it wasn’t to a team that went undefeated later on!

American

A group of 5 in the playoff?! It’s more likely than you think!

Yes, Cincy has beaten us, and remained undefeated to boot! But let’s not forget these great wins that they and Houston put together:

• Cincinnati 42 – Murray State 7
• Houston 45 – Grambling 0

Best of luck, conference gladiators! Thank you, and your conferences for showing us the light of a 13th data point, that isn’t an absolute money grab. If only Notre Dame was as brave and put together such incredible resumes as scheduling nine power five teams simply isn’t enough!

The post HLS Proudly Presents: The 13th Data Point appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Notre Dame promoted Tommy Rees to offensive coordinator. Penn State found their way into a brand new scandal. Southern Cal fired everyone in the athletic department besides their football coaches. Joe Brady bolted to the NFL after extinguishing his victory cigar with LSU. Phil Jurkovec saved me from having to memorize the spelling of his name by transferring to Boston College.

Hilariously, that’s all only scratching the surface.

Enjoy a longer than usual episode (if you’re wanting the ND stuff, head to the 49 minute mark) as we take our long winter podcast nap. 2020 is going to be one hell of a ride.

Broadcast

Twitch Broadcast

The post HLS Podcast: Welcome to the Offseason, Everything’s Crazy appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

It seems fitting, to me at least, that this episode ended up being a complete episode of randomness. This college football/Notre Dame podcast ended up being invaded with video games and baseball talk. For me, the Friday Roundup was always a medium for randomness and this episode absolutely hit that bullseye.

The video game invasion occurred due to my rather last minute decision to take part in Extra Life tomorrow starting at 8am CT. I have a more detailed explanation in the podcast, but the tl;dr is that I am doing this in memory of Aven. You may remember that two years ago, I asked for help in raising money for him and his family and y’all came through big. He may have lost his battle, but I will be Gamin’ for Aven and hope to raise $1,000 for the Children’s Hospital Network of Oklahoma in his memory. So make sure to stop on by during your football Saturday and toss in a couple of bucks for the children.

The Roundup

Time for a few links that were discussed in the recap earlier this week. I got lazy and forgot to link them in the post (oops). Here are the stories about Jalen Hurd bolting Tennessee and Jimbo Fisher ranting on refs.

I would really love to stop talking about Baylor. But the new details that come out are simply too hard to ignore and serve as a reminder as to why Baylor basically needed to burn the whole thing to the ground.

Tom Arnold: college football insider. Y’all he has the super inside information that Nick Saban was just this close to taking the New York Giants job. It totally doesn’t read like a generic forum post. Nope, not at all. Totally believable.

Things aren’t looking so good for Bobby. Diaco had to demote his offensive coordinator as things are not going well over at UCONN. Look, I’m not saying that he’s going to get fired and that he should come back home to his old job, but I am saying that there is a job opening in the Midwest for a football team looking to take a 3-4 scheme and make their defense great again. Maybe Tom Arnold knows more about this. We shall see.

This is how baseball talk invaded the show. Auburn fans rolled Toomer’s corner in celebration of the Cubs winning the World Series. Holy shit, that’s a thing I just typed and it isn’t April 1.

I never want a beat reporter’s job. As 18 Stripes explores, live tweeting pressers can leave out quite a bit of detail, leaving loads of room for all kinds of hot take interpretation.

The post Friday Roundup: The “Grab Bag” Episode appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

If you thought that last sentence was truthful, you are going to be very disappointed.

Look, there really isn’t much to say about this one and it’s not for lack of caring or throwing the towel in on the season. This week all eyes are focused internally and just how Notre Dame will rebound after the disaster that was last week.

Of course, the usual news roundup and picks with EddieMac are here as well. Strap in and get your head right for another weekend of college football with us.

The Roundup

I would love to stop reporting crimes like this. I believe there has been only one week in which a sex crime hasn’t been in the college football news cycle this season. This week, Indiana WR, Kiante Enis, has been charged with two counts of felony child molestation for an admitted sexual encounter with a child 13 years or young and holy shit I want to vomit now.

File all this under: WTF Baylor?! So, Baylor has their first road game on the road against Rice. Art Briles shows up. Shawn Oakman, indicted for sexual assault in July, was in the damn locker room. Jim Grobe, new head coach, tried to play clueless about the later and then got pissy at the media for using a direct quote. Gold stars all around, Baylor. Penn State is starting to become jealous.

I guess Rice felt left out of the dumb. For a school that is supposedly full of smart kids, their band sure had a hard time finding a balance between scathing satire and crossing about twenty or so lines with their performance at halftime.

In happier news, Oregon’s duck mascot remains the best. God bless, Puddles. This uniform in his glorious honor is the best thing that Oregon has ever worn and will ever wear. Thankfully, great Puddles things didn’t stop there as he found a way to mic drop the Tennessee and Florida war of words.

In even happier news, Southern Cal is a full-blown tire fire. A homesick kid wanting to transfer somehow turned into a rumor that he decked Clay Helton and got kicked off the team. There’s loads of other rumors floating around that don’t really deserve the link, but do bask in the warm glow of the fire something out of Southern Cal.

Addendum! As Shane mentioned, here’s grown men dressing knights beating the shit out of each other in a boxing ring. And, as Eddie mentioned, here’s Leonard Fournette murdering someone via stiff arm:

https://vine.co/v/5nuzuELKq1A

The post Friday Roundup: The “Ultimate Duke Preview” Epsiode appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

While Notre Dame will get its fair share of air time every week, the podcast is more of a college football podcast than it is an ND one, following in the spirit of the Roundup posts over the years. The stories are certainly told with my ND bias proudly on display–so what I’m trying to say is that I’m doing things a bit differently than every other ND podcast to not completely over-saturate everything.

This post will serve as a supplement to the audio fun. I will always include links of things that I discuss on the show and sometimes (like this week) include things that I missed/forgot about or anything big/hilarious that happens after recording.

I should also note that this post will go live every Friday at noon; however, if you subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or Podbean, you will get early access to every episode which goes live early Friday morning.

If you like the podcast, be sure to give me a review on iTunes. If you have suggestions, comments, or want to tell me that I suck, I’m all ears as well to help make this thing better.

So with all that said, let’s get to this week’s episode. We got some fun news about our friends at Rent Like a Champion, coaching moves, a Weis paycheck, the ND playoff picture, some Temple talk, and terrible picks with NDEddieMac to get to.

The Roundup

In this episode:

• Da U got a little less Golden
• I totally forgot about this in this week’s episode, but Jerry Kill retired due to health reasons. Honestly, I’m very upset that I let this slip my mind. Happy trails, coach, we will always have the best memories of Dilly Bars.
• Forgive me Father, for I am going to link a Rovell tweet, but our long nightmare of having to pay Weis money will be over soon.
• From a potential contender in the SEC West, to QB controversies and a divided locker room. Things are not going well in Aggieland.
• Things are a little rough at Florida State. Dalvin Cook is out, Golson isn’t taking first team snaps in front of the media, but Jimbo claims he is still the “likely” starter.
• Undefeated Baylor will have to overcome QB issues of their own, but this is injury related.
• Weekly picks

The Booze

This week, I enlisted Philly Kelly for this segment. After all, she’s been planning this tailgate for a few years and she’s ridiculously excited. She’s even got a selfie stick for this occasion. I better get Facetimed.

Here is Kelly’s booze recommendation for the weekend:

• 3 to 4 bing cherries, pitted
• 1/2 ounce lemon juice
• 1 ounce simple syrup
• 2 ounces whiskey
• 1 cherry, to garnish

1. In the bottom of a short glass (Old Fashioned-style), muddle the cherries with the lemon juice.
2. Fill the glass with ice, add the simple syrup and whiskey. Stir for 10 seconds. Garnish with a cherry and enjoy!

Moment of Nix

Adidas ruins everything that they touch. They created glow in the dark helmets for Texas A&M. It looked cool, it sounded like an awesome idea for a Halloween game at night.

The game is being played at 11am in Texas. Adidas has now created a live Aggie joke and Texas A&M is trying to convince everyone that the uniforms will work during the day. You are the worst, Adidas.

Special Mention:

Because I didn’t see this until this morning. Enjoy drunk Michigan fans losing their minds (NSFW audio, by the way) as Sparty breaks their spirits:

Subscribe!

Yeah, I’m going to make sure y’all don’t forget how to subscribe to this thing:

• iTunes
• Podbean
• RSS

The post Friday Roundup: The “Trick or Treat: Here’s a Podcast” Episode appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Image courtesy @AuburnElvis

Playoff Rankings: 2014 Bowl Games

Each week, the T.C.B. Poll is an aggregate of all our inputs. Scroll down to see individual selections and opinions. Images courtesy The Helmet Project.

Rank	Team		Record	Weekly Change
1		Alabama	12-1	—
2		Oregon	12-1	—
3		Florida State	13-0	—
4		Texas Christian	11-1	—

Also receiving votes: Baylor.

TCB Committee Member Comments

@TheLSUElvis

1. Alabama
2. Oregon
3. TCU
4. Florida State

@AuburnElvis

1. Oregon – The only 1-loss team that got a do-over made the most of it.
2. Alabama – Beating Mizzou like a drum means Bama’s easily the 5-or-6th-best team in the Big 10 East
3. TCU – Sorry, Baylor, your best non-conference victory was Buffalo. And if this were the NFL Buffalo instead of the NCAA Buffalo, that would mean something.
4. Florida State – If Ohio State had lost to any decent team on their schedule, I’d have no trouble putting the Buckeyes in over an undefeated FSU team that struggled with a weaker schedule (and considering OSU’s in the Big 10, that’s saying something.) But at the end of the day, barely beating 3 mediocre, ranked teams, and barely beating 6 not-very-good teams was all you needed to do. Congratulations.

@HawkeyeElvis

1. Alabama
2. Oregon
3. Florida State
4. Baylor

@IrishElvis

1. Florida State – I dislike just about everything about this team, but if you win all your games and don’t have a horrendous strength-of-schedule (FSU’s is ranked 37th — ahead of TCU, Ohio State, and Baylor), you should be rewarded with the top slot. The actual committee’s conundrum with teams 4-6 began when they demoted an undefeated and defending national champion out of the #1 spot, in my opinion.
2. Oregon – Avenged their sole loss. It doesn’t always work this cleanly, but they made good on their opportunity to clear any remaining doubts.
3. Alabama – a Bama/Oregon semifinal would be a fascinating clash of styles. Bring it on!
4. Baylor -Conference co-champions? Let’s check the results on October 11…

The post TCB Poll: College Football Playoff appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Image courtesy @AuburnElvis

Playoff Rankings: Week 14

Each week, the T.C.B. Poll is an aggregate of all our inputs. Scroll down to see individual selections and opinions. Images courtesy The Helmet Project.

Rank	Team		Record	Weekly Change
1		Alabama	11-1	+2
2		Oregon	11-1	-1
3		Florida State	12-0	-1
4		Texas Christian	10-1	—

Also receiving votes: Baylor.

TCB Committee Member Comments

@TheLSUElvis

1. Alabama – Nick Saban has a process to his program. The process is working great and without a huge upset by Missouri in the SEC Championship Game, the Tide will be the #1 team.
2. Oregon – With the Heisman front runner playing great football right now, the Ducks are ready to compete for the National Title.
3. TCU – I don’t see Iowa State taking them down and they seem to be a good 3rd seed
4. Florida State – I have been saying all year, the defending National Champion that is undefeated deserves to be in the top 4 if not the top spot. Had Ohio State not lost their QB they might have jumped Florida State in this poll. I hope they are #4 so we can get a Saban vs. Fisher opening round match.

@AuburnElvis

1. Oregon – They seem to have worked out their early-season OL problems. If they trounce Arizona, they’ll likely be the #1 or #2 overall seed.
2. Alabama – I don’t expect the Tide to have much trouble with Mizzou, a team that couldn’t beat Indiana at home.
3. TCU – The Horned Frogs blasted Texas while Baylor struggled with Texas Tech. Head-to-head says Baylor should be here, but I honestly don’t see the Bears beating Kansas State.
4. Florida State – Will lose to Georgia Tech and let Ohio State or Wisconsin slip into the #4 spot. Hilarity will ensue.

@HawkeyeElvis

1. Alabama – Lots of Head Coaching jobs out there for Kiffin. How long does he stay under Uncle Nick’s wing?
2. Oregon – Speaking of wings, I’m really looking forward to the Ducks playoff opponent.
3. TCU – I had earlier penalized the Frogs for a close win against an inferior opponent. I had to do the same to Baylor. Plus I think the Bears get beat by that old wizard Bill Snyder.
4. Florida State – Almost losing to Florida this year should be grounds for keeping them out of the playoffs altogether.

@IrishElvis

1. Florida State – Undefeated 2 years running? I can’t leave ’em off my top spot.
2. Oregon – If their assistant coaching ranks are poached by vacant head coaching jobs between now & the playoff, then I’ll be nervous. For now, I still trust them (and Marcus Mariota’s efficiency) more than Lane Kiffin.
3. Alabama – Their best is enough to beat anybody, but they’ve shown a startling inconsistency for long stretches during the season (longer than FSU, certainly).
4. Baylor – I have to put them in here over TCU, simply because I think actual head-to-head results should matter more than numerical hypotheticals.

The TCB Poll predicted 3-of-4 teams submitted by the College Football Playoff Committee last week, who (as it turns out) gave too much credit to Mississippi State. Barring any unforeseen results in the final weekend, this should be how the playoff shakes out.

The post TCB Poll: Week 14 Reactions appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Image courtesy @AuburnElvis

Playoff Rankings: Week 13

Each week, the T.C.B. Poll is an aggregate of all our inputs. Scroll down to see individual selections and opinions. Images courtesy The Helmet Project.

Rank	Team		Record	Weekly Change
1		Oregon	10-1	+1
2		Florida State	11-0	-1
3		Alabama	10-1	—
4		Texas Christian	9-1	—

Also receiving votes: Mississippi State, Ohio State, Baylor.

TCB Committee Member Comments

@TheLSUElvis

LSU used to play for the Golden Boot on the last weekend of the season, now we play Texas A&M for a trophy that does not exist yet. Oh well…Top 4 going into the final week:

1. Florida State – Still the defending national champs and only unbeaten should be the #1 team each season. Can the Muschamp crew pull off a miracle to take them down in the final week?
2. Alabama – Iron Bowl has been pretty dramatic the last few years. I hope it continues
3. Oregon – I want to see the Ducks and The Tide go head to head in the first playoff game
4. Mississippi State – Egg Bowl vs. Ole Miss.

On Deck: Ohio State, Baylor and TCU

@AuburnElvis

Rivalry Week is here! Throw out all the records (that work against whatever teams you’re pulling for) and get ready for the chaos.

1. Oregon – Ducks never say die.
2. Bama – Sure, whatever.
3. TCU – If Baylor beats Texas Tech soundly, I’ll be willing to move the Bears over TCU b/c of their head-to-head… but I won’t feel good about it.
4. FSU – Will Muschamp… if ever there was a time for your neurotic, bi-polar, Boom-tastic powers to produce a win Florida has no business getting on their own, it’s now. Vaya con Dios.

@HawkeyeElvis

Well, it looks like I picked the wrong week to give up drinking. Between a close basketball loss on Friday to a ranked team and an even closer football on Saturday to a ranked team, Hawkeye Elvis has a whole Mess of Blues.My Top 4 with two weeks to go:

1. Oregon – Calmly, methodically moving its way through the remainder of its schedule. Kind of like a serial killer.
2. Alabama – Dear Karmic Football Gods/Deliverers of Delicious Irony, how about an improbably Auburn victory on Saturday. It doesn’t have to be as dramatic as last year, but that would be kinda neat.
3. Florida State – Now the Gators beating the Seminoles this week, THAT would be hilarious.
4. Mississippi State – Out goes the Big 12. Clanga’s 5-point loss at Alabama is the best of the 1-lossers.

On deck: Ohio State (how in the blue hell did they lose to Virginia Tech?), TCU (wakes up in a cold sweat at night recalling their loss to Baylor), Baylor (used up all its luck in coming back to beat TCU, none left for the WV loss).

@IrishElvis

1. Florida State – I’m curious if there’s *anything* Jameis Winston could do at this point to be declared ineligible. I mean, he’s running out of shenanigans to pull.
2. Oregon – Prime time road game. Easy way to lose national respect…or solidify your playoff spot.
3. TCU – Will Texas make a late-season surge under Charlie Strong? Will TCU keep their offense in overdrive? Will I escape the clutches of tryptophan to watch this game?
4. Alabama – Methinks the Dark Lord Saban will not leave anything to chance in this year’s Iron Bowl, but my allegiance is with Auburn Elvis.

First 3 out: Ohio State, Mississippi State, Baylor.

The TCB Poll went 3-for-4 last week in advance of the Playoff Committee rankings, with MSU making the Committee’s cut over the Elvii’s pick of TCU.

The post TCB Poll: Week 13 Reactions appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Image courtesy @AuburnElvis

Playoff Rankings: Week 12

Each week, the T.C.B. Poll is an aggregate of all our inputs. Scroll down to see individual selections and opinions. Images courtesy The Helmet Project.

Rank	Team		Record	Weekly Change
1		Florida State	10-0	+1
2		Oregon	9-1	+1
3		Alabama	9-1	+2
4		Texas Christian	9-1	—

Also receiving votes: Ohio State, Mississippi State, Baylor.

TCB Committee Member Comments

@TheLSUElvis

1. Florida State – The defending national champs are the only unbeaten among the big conferences. That should place them at the top.
2. Alabama – Nick Saban will have this team prepared to play in the playoffs
3. Oregon – I want to see the Ducks and The Tide go head to head in the first playoff game
4. Mississippi State – Tough loss on the road to Alabama. They win out then they should have a shot to play for the title in the playoffs.

On Deck: Ohio State, Baylor and TCU.

@AuburnElvis

Every week, just more disappointment and heartbreak. The good guys keep losing and the bad guys keep winning. It’s enough to make a football Elvis turn to booze and pills. Thankfully, we have this poll as a reason to get up Monday mornings and put on the ol’ jumpsuit.

1. Oregon – Kings of the bye week, the Ducks got to sit back and watch the other contenders lose or struggle.
2. Alabama – If they can beat a reeling Auburn team at home in 2 weeks, they’ll win the SEC West, and likely advance into the playoffs after winning the SEC Championship.
3. FSU – Pulled off another characteristic escape against what should be an inferior opponent. Boston College, Florida, and the ACC Coastal Champion are all that stand between this team and the playoffs.
4. TCU – Struggled at Kansas, but it doesn’t matter. Unless Baylor beats OK State and Kansas State, the close Baylor head-to-head result doesn’t sway me.

5, 6, & 7 – Mississippi State, Ohio State, Baylor. The Bulldogs are out unless TCU continues to struggle and Baylor loses. Same situation for the Buckeyes, PLUS Mississippi State has to lose to Ole Miss. If Baylor wins out, I expect they’ll jump into TCU’s spot.

@HawkeyeElvis

I truly feel for my Elvii brethren this week. But that’s why we have another game this week to chase out those demons from the last. Bye-bye Clanga from my Top 4. Out of respect for Auburn Elvis, I will keep Bama out of the top spot.

1. Florida State – One of these days, they will run into a team that keeps a double-digit lead throughout the game.
2. Alabama – Gets a bye week against Western Carolina.
3. Oregon – Wisely chose not to play this week. The Pac-12 title is there for the taking.
4. Baylor – Yep. I’m sticking with the Bears. They own the head-to-head against TCU and they didn’t almost lose to Kansas.

On deck: Ohio State, TCU, Mississippi State.

Here we all thought there would be a fight over 1-loss teams. There could be a BIG fight over 2-loss teams in a couple of weeks.

@IrishElvis

1. Florida State – adios, MSU. Sole undefeated team needs the top spot, no matter how much I loathe their off-field activity or their first half boredom.
2. Oregon – bumps up a spot. Don’t lose focus, Quacks.
3. TCU – I’ll reward you for hanging on against an inferior team this week, if only because a 1st round spread offense playoff on New Year’s Day vs. 2-seed Oregon would be incredible to watch
4. Alabama – toughest schedule to date, so they schedule a D-II opponent (note: it’s never the right time to schedule a D-II opponent). They have a good number of weapons in their arsenal, but they’ll need to avoid a loss in the coming weeks.

First 3 out: Ohio State, Mississippi State, Baylor.

The TCB Poll nailed all 4 teams again last week in advance of the Playoff Committee rankings, transposing only FSU & Oregon. With all the shuffling this week, it will be interesting to see what the Committee presents.

The post TCB Poll: Week 12 Reactions appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

We don’t know what exactly the 12-person committee will use as criteria for which teams make the final cut. We don’t know if they’ll take injuries or suspensions into account. We don’t know how they’ll weigh conference championships. We don’t know if they’ll show compassion for a team that lost in the final seconds of an epic top five show down because of a controversial offensive penalty that negated a game-winning score. We don’t know anything, really.

Several committee members have noted that they watch upwards of fifty teams a week. Not just the top teams, but also the teams that the top teams play, specifically the ones that will be considered common denominators. I imagine, and this is just me, that teams that cross conference lines such as Clemson, South Carolina, or Arizona State will be major influences even if they don’t have realistic chances to make the Football Four themselves.

I broke down the top teams into three tiers. The top tier are the current “guarantees” if there are such a thing at this point. The second tier will be the teams fighting for the last one or two spots. The third tier are the teams that need some help outside of their own schedule.

Tier One: 

• Mississippi State – The widely-considered top team in the nation has by far the best resume. They have wins against three top ten teams (at the time of kickoff) and they’ve been one of the most consistent and dominant teams in all of their wins (their only single-digit winning margin was on the road against LSU).
• Ole Miss – While they don’t have as many top wins as their magnolia state brethren, they did knock of Alabama, skyrocketing them into the top three. the rest of their wins have been just as dominant as Mississippi State, but not against quite as high of talent thus far.
• Florida State – If the Seminoles were a Friends episode, it would be called “The one that didn’t die”. This team has found ways to eke out wins when it shouldn’t have. If they do fall at some point, the voters will likely make them pay for it.

For now, these teams are in. Unfortunately for the two Mississippi teams, the Egg Bowl could be the first of potentially four straight playoff games for the winner. If both teams win out, the Egg Bowl decides the SEC West winner, who will then have to play in the SEC Championship, then into the NCAA playoffs. Only one of these teams will get in. I feel like any team that gets a loss in the last two weeks of the season will be toast. That’s just how voters remember things.

Florida State will likely win out. The ACC is terrible and FSU has already faced the hardest teams on their schedule. So barring some incredible upset that would likely make the entire nation celebrate, we have to assume the Seminoles are going to be in the playoffs.

Tier Two:

I saved this one for last because it is the deepest and in the most flux. If you’re a Notre Dame fan, these are the teams we need to watch closely if we hope to get back into the top four. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the top tier, but likely two out of those three teams are going to be in the playoffs. That leaves just two more spots open. At this point, it’s going to be hard to see an outcome where two SEC teams don’t go. The SEC West is just too incredibly deep, and as we’ll see shortly we can’t count out Georgia out of the East either.

• Alabama – Of all the one-loss teams in the SEC West, Bama has the best shot of stealing the conference. A win over Mississippi State throws the entire nation into a mess, let alone the division.
• Auburn – Similar to Alabama, Auburn has plenty of chances to win out against big teams and still take the division. No matter what, the Iron Bowl likely decides which team gets eliminated.
• Oregon – The Ducks’ big problem was originally that Michigan State looked like not such a big win, but now it’s looking a lot better. Now their problem lies in the schedule. With no big games remaining until the conference championship, it’s hard for Oregon to impress anyone on the committee.
• Notre Dame – Some people are saying Notre Dame’s loss almost helped the Irish as much as a win at least in perception of if they belong with the big boys. Notre Dame cannot win a conference championship, but their schedule allows them not to have to. A couple of “big enough” games are still ahead of them, as well.
• Michigan State – Right now, they’re a little on the outside looking in, but defeating Ohio State in two weeks will put them squarely into the mix. After that, the path smooths out and even the B1G Championship will be very gettable.
• Georgia – If there’s any team that has been overlooked this year, it might be Georgia. With one more big game against Auburn coming up and a potential trip to the SEC Championship game, the Bulldogs are far from dead this season.

The biggest question out of this tier will be what happens in the SEC West. There’s a scenario where Ole Miss beats Alabama who beats Mississippi State who beats Ole Miss. I don’t even know who wins the division at that point, let alone gets into the playoffs. Or how about Auburn beats Ole Miss who beats Mississippi State who already beat Auburn? Could there be a four-way tie? Only time will tell and it’ll be huge for the outside one-loss teams hoping to get a chance at the championship.

Tier Three:

• TCU/Kansas State/Baylor – These teams must win out. The Big 12 just isn’t strong enough right now to guarantee a one-loss champion getting into the playoffs. Kansas State may have the best chance as they close the season with games against not only TCU and Baylor but also West Virginia. Running that table would go a long way to bumping their resume.
• Nebraska/Ohio State – Both of these teams will need to win the B1G championship to have a shot. That chance is greater for OSU as they have a huge game against Michigan State looming.
• Arizona State/Arizona – The loss to UCLA is killing them right now as the Bruins have dropped in the rankings. Still, with wins over USC, Stanford and a game against Notre Dame later on, it could give them a chance to steal the PAC 12 South and play Oregon as a play-in game. Arizona has a huge win against Oregon, but will have to beat ASU to get a rematch against the Ducks. It’ll be hard to beat that team twice.

It’s going to be hard for any of these teams to make the playoffs, there’s just too much up in the air at this point on their schedules. The Big 12 teams have beaten each other up just enough to knock them all out. The B1G teams need Michigan State to drop out. The Arizona teams have mediocre losses on their record already, have to play each other still, and THEN still have to likely play Oregon. Are these teams out of it? Not even close. But it’s a steep hill in front of them.

My gut tells me that if the remaining season is on short supply of surprises, the last spot will come down to Notre Dame and Michigan State. We’re going to see exactly what the committee weighs heavily and which things aren’t as important. Of all the seasons these two teams could have picked to not play each other, it looks like it happened when both teams needed the game the most. One could be a conference champion whose only loss is on the road to a top five team. One could be a cross-country conqueror whose only loss is on the road to a top five team.

It’s hard to compare Notre Dame to other teams around the country. There’s no conference championship to play for, which could end up being the death blow to a 2014 championship run. While Notre Dame sits at 11-1 after a win on the road to USC, the other teams will all be playing nationally televised all-or-nothing games. Will it be Georgia versus Mississippi State? Whoever is in this game, the winner is in. Florida State will likely win the ACC with an unblemished record. They’re in.

That leaves two spots. There is a strong chance that two SEC teams finishes the season at 11-1 and DOESN’T make the championship game, despite having defeated at least one of the teams in that game. How can you punish a team from the SEC West with an 11-1 record? You can’t. They’re in, too.

That leaves one final spot.

Notre Dame. Michigan State. Oregon.

Who gets in? Does the head-to-head victory for Oregon over Michigan State knock out the Spartans? Oregon and Michigan State will likely both win conferences, does that end the season for the Irish? Notre Dame will have played the hardest schedule. Does that cook the Ducks?

Even more importantly, will any of that even matter?

If college football has taught us anything, it’s that there will always be more surprises. We know there will be teams in the top ten that will receive their first or second loss this season. That’s a guarantee. But we also know that a couple more will likely be upset. Who takes that fall? Will Notre Dame lose to Arizona State? Does Oregon stumble against Stanford? Does Kentucky surprise a big name? Does LSU? Can Michigan ruin the Spartans season?

Anything can and will happen in the NCAA. We’ve already had a week where five top ten teams lost. If only one top ten team loses a week from now until December, we will have a drastically different idea of what a playoff team might look like. The key? Don’t be one of those teams that lose. If Notre Dame can avoid that fate, they’ll be getting good news about January.

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