Sep
25
2022
I started writing at Week 3 this year, and I said the Group of 5 was out of it. Well, now the Group of 5 really is. Cincinnati made the Playoff last year off the back of an incredible season––including a win over Notre Dame and decent chaos in the ACC, Pac 12, and Big …
Dec
05
2021
The games are down, and there are less than 12 hours of waiting for who the selection committee decides to put in the Playoff. We know three of them for sure: Alabama, Michigan, and Cincinnati have locked up their spots in the Playoff. Who will the fourth be? Conventional wisdom is that it will be …
Nov
28
2021
With one week left in the season, we still have nine teams left in Playoff contention. Does that number sound high to you? It shouldn’t. Let’s explain why. First of all, let’s look at the teams: Georgia, Cincinnati, Michigan, Alabama, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Ohio State, Baylor, and Oregon. Do you think Ohio State and …
Nov
22
2021
This has, quite frankly, been the most chaotic season in the CFP’s eight-year history. Perhaps we should have expected it. After all, so many teams are more experienced, given the extra year of eligibility due to COVID. Even so, this year has been wild. Part of the wildness, however, has been the strength at the …
Nov
14
2021
We’ve been waiting seven years for this, but we are finally ready to discuss a Group of 5 school as a serious Playoff contender. And by “serious contender” I don’t just mean that a team has a chance. By “serious contender,” I mean that the Cincinnati Bearcats have the inside track to one of the …
Nov
07
2021
This week saw a ton of upsets. Eight of the CFP selection committee’s Top 25 teams lost this week, including two of the Top 10. Of the 17 teams we had yet to eliminate last week, four lost. And none of those four teams are the sole elimination this week. I touched on this a …
Dec
19
2020
It seems fitting that 2020 will leave us with the most chaotic Selection Sunday of the CFP era. Twice in the CFP era, we’ve had a three-team “bubble” coming out of Conference Championship weekend. In 2014, the fourth spot could have gone to any one of Ohio State, Baylor, or TCU. In 2017, Alabama, Ohio …
Dec
14
2020
With one week remaining in the college football season, we count 11 teams still alive in the College Football Playoff race. Of course, of those 11 teams, some are in far stronger position than others. This week’s CFP Implications will be very simple: We will run down the 11 teams and what they each need …
Dec
13
2020
As we approach the final weekend of the college football season, we have 11 teams still in the College Football Playoff race. Of those 11, one–Alabama–has likely locked up a Playoff berth already. No matter what happens–barring something insane like a 35-point loss to Florida this weekend–the Crimson Tide will be in the Playoff. Who …
Dec
01
2020
In its history, the CFP selection committee has actually been someone consistent in being immune to criticism from media outlets. We haven’t really seen big shifts in rankings based on criticism from college football media. The closest we’ve ever seen to that was in the very first year of the rankings, when the committee flipped …
Nov
24
2020
We had a lot of questions coming into the first CFP selection committee rankings this year. After all, 2020 is one of the strangest seasons in modern college football, because of the lack of an organized schedule and teams starting the year at different points. How would the committee judge different number of games …
Nov
23
2020
In a week where several Playoff contenders once again missed games, the Big Ten took center stage. The undefeated teams in each division faced off, with Northwestern stopping Wisconsin and Ohio State surviving Indiana’s comeback attempt. What does this mean for the Big Ten in terms of Playoff bids? Well, two bids doesn’t look to …
Nov
02
2020
From early in the season, when the Big 12 was clearly struggling, I’ve been mentioning the AAC somewhere in a group of teams in line for a Playoff bid. As the season has progressed, it became obvious that Cincinnati was the only AAC team in the picture. Still, with tons of teams playing and all …
Oct
05
2020
The Big 12 was the first conference to really jump into play, and things have not worked out so well for the conference. Aside from a few canceled games on the COVID front, the Big 12 is seeing chaos and misfortune about. It started early, with nonconference losses to Sun Belt teams. That followed with …
Sep
27
2020
It was obvious when they started playing two weeks ago that there were potential pitfalls for the Big 12. With a disastrous Week 1 that saw bad losses from three teams in the conference, plus a near-loss by Texas Tech to a bad FCS team, the conference could little afford upsets during the season–especially if …