Saturday's college football matchups featured more post-game body blows than the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight as many teams followed the same plant your flag, group melee experience that was almost too commonplace this weekend. Only Texas' Steve Sarkisian was in the right mind to prevent his bozos from starting a ruckus in the first meeting between the Longhorns and Texas A&M since 2011.
Rivalry week was here and made its mark right away when Georgia survived eight overtimes against Georgia Tech to set the tone on Friday. Michigan stunned many by bringing Ohio State down to their level of play and was more proficient in the kicking game to skate past the Buckeyes 13-10. Of course, the Buckeyes showed more fight in the postgame, which was so intense that Columbus police began to use pepper spray to disburse the crowd. From then on the scuffles kept coming. Auburn and Alabama, North Carolina-NCST, Missouri-Arkansas, and Florida-Florida State all found extra beef in their rivalry games.
Lost in the shuffle of all the pushing and shoving were the conference championship implications at stake. With Ohio State's loss to Michigan, Penn State waltzed into the Big Ten Championship against Oregon. Clemson was the beneficiary of Miami blowing a 21-point lead to former OSU QB Kyle McCord and Syracuse to set up a Tigers and SMU matchup in the ACC Championship. The Big 12 Championship was the last to be sorted out as Arizona State went from being picked last in the preseason poll to earning a trip to play Iowa State, who kept Coach Prime and the Buffaloes out thanks to BYU beating Houston (yeah, it was a mess to sort out). Georgia awaited the winner of Texas and Texas A&M and the Longhorns came out victorious to play in their first SEC Championship.
The Mountain West Championship could decide who gets the Group of 5 entry in the College Football Playoffs as Boise State will take on UNLV. Army at 10-1 has an outside shot as they take on Tulane in the AAC Championship. It's a rematch of the Battle of the Bricks in the MAC Championship as Ohio takes on Miami, while Marshall and Louisiana lock up in the Sun Belt Championship. Finally, Western Kentucky kicked a last-second field goal to play Jacksonville State in back-to-back weeks for the CUSA Championship.
Kent State finished the season as the only winless team, going 0-12 to claim the uncoveted 134th spot in this year's Pool Poll. Florida State (2-10) was the surprise entrant in the final Bottom 10, joined by fellow Power 4 members Purdue (1-11) and Mississippi State (2-10).
While the playoffs still need to be sorted, 82 teams qualified for a bowl bid, which is the exact amount needed. Here's a breakdown of each conference's representation for the bowl season:
AAC (8/14): Army, Memphis, Tulane, Navy, ECU, UTSA, USF, and North Texas
ACC (13/17): SMU, Miami, Syracuse, Clemson, Duke, Louisville, Boston College, Georgia Tech, Pitt, Virginia Tech, NCST, Cal, and UNC
Big 12 (9/16): Arizona State, Iowa State, BYU, Colorado, Texas Tech, Kansas State, Baylor, TCU, and West Virginia
Big Ten (12/18): Oregon, Penn State, Indiana, Ohio State, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Rutgers, Minnesota, USC, Washington, and Nebraska
CUSA: (4/10): Sam Houston State, Liberty, Western Kentucky, Jacksonville State
Independents (2/3): Notre Dame and UConn
MAC (7/12): Ohio, Miami, Toledo, Northern Illinois, Buffalo, Bowling Green, and Western Michigan
MWC: (5/12): Boise State, UNLV, Colorado State, San Jose State, and Fresno State
PAC-12 (1/2): Washington State
SEC (13/16): Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Missouri, LSU, Texas A&M, Florida, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, and Arkansas
Sun Belt (8/14): Louisiana, Marshall, Georgia Southern, James Madison, Texas State, Arkansas State, South Alabama, and Coastal Carolina
Now here's a look at this week's final regular season Pool Poll:
LW: 17-7 win over Texas A&M
11. Georgia (10-2, 69, 11)
LWR: 13
LW: 44-42 (8OT) win over Georgia Tech
Up Next: SEC Championship vs Texas (11-1, 3)
12. Miami (10-2, 75, 41.5)
LWR: 8
LW: 42-38 loss to Syracuse
Up Next: Playoffs/Bowl Game
13. Iowa State (10-2, 78, 79.5)
LWR: 16
LW: 29-21 win over Kansas State
Up Next: Big 12 Championship vs Arizona State (10-2, 9)
14. BYU (10-2, 79.6, 59.5)
LWR: 14
LWR: win over Houston
Up Next: Bowl Game
15. Tennessee (10-2, 79.9, 47)
LWR: 15
LW: 36-23 win over Vanderbilt
Up Next: Playoffs/Bowl Game
16. Memphis (10-2, 92, 75)
LWR: 20
LW: 34-24 win over Tulane
Up Next: Bowl Game
17. UNLV (10-2, 95.3, 37)
LWR: 18
LW: 38-14 win over Nevada
Up Next: Mountain West Championship Boise State (11-1, 7)
18. Louisiana (10-2, 96.6, 95.5)
LWR: 19
LW: 37-23 win over Louisiana Monroe
Up Next: Sun Belt Championship vs Marshall (9-3, 26)
19. Alabama (9-3, 55.1, 63)
LWR: 22
LW: 28-14 win over Auburn
Up Next: Playoffs/Bowl Game
20. Syracuse (9-3, 55.6, 57.7)
LWR: 23
LW: 42-38 win over Miami
Up Next: Bowl Game
21. South Carolina (9-3, 60.4, 51)
LWR: 24
LW: 17-14 win over Clemson
Up Next: Bowl Game
22. Clemson (9-3, 71, 22)
LWR: 12
LW: 14-17 loss to South Carolina
Up Next: ACC Championship vs SMU (11-1, 5)
23. Colorado (9-3, 73, 55.3)
LWR: 25
LW: 52-0 win over Oklahoma State
Up Next: Bowl Game
24. Illinois (9-3, 78.2, 20.7)
LWR: 27
LW: 38-28 win over Northwestern
Up Next: Bowl Game
25. Ole Miss (9-3, 83.7, 60.3)
LWR: 28
LW: 26-14 win over Mississippi State
Up Next: Bowl Game
Dropped Out: Liberty and Tulane
Waiting List: Marshall, Tulane, Duke, Missouri, Ohio, Sam Houston State, Navy, Liberty, Louisville, Texas Tech, LSU, Kansas State, Baylor, Texas A&M, and Washington State
Bottom 10:
125. UTEP (3-9)
126. Middle Tennessee State (3-9)
127. Nevada (3-10)
128. Kennesaw State (2-10)
129. Florida State (2-10)
130. Mississippi State (2-10)
131. UMass (2-10)
132. Purdue (1-11)
133. Southern Miss (1-11)
134. Kent State (0-12)
No comments:
Post a Comment