On Sunday, the final college playoff standings were announced. This announcement was for all the marbles, and there are now officially only four teams that have the potential to be national champions. There was one shift from last week in the top four and that has caused an uproar. The four teams are the following:
1. Alabama
Alabama has been led by the following players:
QB Blake Simms: 230 of 355 for 3,250 yards. He threw for 26 TDs and 7 INTs. He has also run the ball 73 times for 321 yards and 6 TDs.
RB T.J. Yeldon: 184 carries for 932 carries and 10 TDs
RB Derrick Henry: 159 carries for 895 yards and 10 TDs
Heisman Candidate: Amari Cooper: 115 receptions for 1,656 yards and 14 TDs
2. Oregon
Oregon has been led by the following players:
Heisman Candidate: QB Marcus Mariota: 254 of 372 for 3,773 yards and 117 rushes for 669 yards and 14 TDs (52 Total TDs)
RB Royce Freeman: 230 carries for 1,299 yards and 16 TDs
3. Florida State
Florida State has been led by the following players:
QB Jameis Winston: 276 of 422 for 3,599 yards. He threw for 24 TD’s and 17 INT’s
RB Dalvin Cook: 155 carries for 905 yards and 8 TD’s.
WR Rashaad Green: 93 receptions for 1,306 yards and 7 TD’s
4. Ohio State
Ohio State has been led by the following players:
QB J.T. Barrett led them to the Big 10 Championship with 203 of 314 passing for 2,834 yards and 34 TDs and 10 INTs. He also carried the ball 171 times for 938 yards and 11 TDs.
QB Cardale Jones: On the list now because he is the starter and even though he has only played one game; that game got them into the playoffs. 22 of 34 passing for 375 yards and 5 TDs, and 34 carries for 215 yards in the Big 10 Championship game.
RB Ezekiel Elliot: 217 carries for 1,402 yards and 12 TDs.
WR Devin Smith: Only 30 catches, but an amazing 26.6 yards a catch and 11 TDs
The Games
Thursday, January 1st, will be the “big night”. It is an evening that will be considered the semi-finals. The two games will be the following:
Sugar Bowl: Ohio State vs. Alabama
Rose Bowl: Florida State vs. Oregon
Finally, on Monday night, January 12th, the winners of the two games will face off in the inaugural title game. The game will be played at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, where the national champion will be crowned.
The oddsmakers have set each teams’ chance of winning as follows:
Alabama: 38.8% chance of winning the title
Oregon: 28.5%
Ohio State: 25.0%
Florida State: 7.6%
Wait….What About The Big 12?
48 hours have passed since the announcement, and individuals across the nation have been debating the Big 12 left on the outside looking in. The Big 12 ended up with #5 (Baylor) and #6 (TCU) not getting an invite. Even though there has been much gnashing of the teeth; their arguments are being squashed by this simple fact:
The four conferences that have conference championships are the teams (read: conferences) who are in. The Big 12 and Notre Dame are already looking at the landscape and trying to decide what they may be doing to ensure that they will not be left out in the cold if a situation like this occurs again. The NCAA is already rumored to be looking at granting exceptions to the 12-team rule for conferences to be eligible to have championship games, and this will almost certainly be supported by the Big 12.
Many critics of Ohio State’s bid will point to their early-season loss to a poor Virginia Tech team. In defense of the Buckeyes, the point is that it was an early-season loss (Labor Day weekend, to be exact). Furthermore, at that point of the season, not only was Ohio State starting a freshman QB, but we had no idea that Virginia Tech was going to be this bad. Ohio State picked up quality wins along the way and sent a message with a thumping win over Wisconsin in the Big 10 championship with a QB making his first start.
Ultimately, it is hard to build a particularly strong argument against any of these 4 teams as worthy national semifinalists for the national title. The NCAA might have opened itself up to second-guessing about the playoff system by creating a setup where even though 5 “power conferences” exist, there is room for only 4 teams in the playoffs. As long as the current system remains in place, it stands to reason that this simple discrepancy will guarantee the same controversy every year.
As for 2014, let us now look forward to two very enticing matchups in this first FBS playoff. May the best team win.
Featured Photo: FoxSports.com