NCAAF Conference Championship Recap

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Matt Linder

College Football’s conference championship weekend was largely a dud, but it was still able to generate some controversy.  On Sunday, the playoff committee selected and announced the four teams that will be competing for a national title: Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia and Alabama.  There were five major conference championship games this weekend, but only four had playoff implications (Sorry, PAC 12).  Let’s recap those games and see which teams punched their ticket to the final four.

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In the first game of the day, Oklahoma dismantled TCU in the Big 12 championship game.  The Sooners got out to a big 17-0 lead after the first quarter, but the Horned Frogs managed to cut the deficit to a touchdown going into the second half.  However, Oklahoma quarterback and Heisman frontrunner, Baker Mayfield, was too much for the TCU defense.  The Sooners went on to win 41-17 to claim their record 8th conference championship.  With the victory, earned they earned the #2 seed in the playoff and will play #3 Georgia in the semi-finals.

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The hype surrounding the ACC championship games was enormous.  The defending
national champion Clemson Tigers took on the resurgent Miami Hurricanes, both teams vying for a trip to the playoff.  Winner moves on, loser gets bounced from the top four.  Unfortunately, the game did not live up to its billing.  Clemson embarrassed Miami 38-3, earning the Tigers the #1 seed and a chance to defend their crown.  Clemson quarterback, Kelly Bryant, had the best game of his young career, going 23-29 through the air for 252 yards and a touchdown.  He also ran for a second score. The Tigers defense swallowed Miami’s offense, limiting the Hurricanes to only 224 yards of total offense.  The defending champs look poised to make a run at another title.  They will play #4 Alabama in the semi-final game. 

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The SEC championship did not live up to the expectations either.  Just like the ACC title game, the winner of this game would lock up their spot in the playoff, while the loser would be eliminated from contention.  On Saturday, in a rematch of the 40-17 beat down Auburn put on Georgia just three weeks ago, the Bulldogs repaid the favor with a convincing 28-7 victory.  The Tigers came into the game as the hottest team in college football after two huge wins against Georgia and Alabama over the past three weeks.  However, their star running back, Kerryon Johnson, was banged up in the SEC title game and could not carry the offensive load.  Georgia forced Auburn to become one-dimensional and held their rival to only 259 yards of total offense.  The Bulldogs look to bully #2 Oklahoma with their efficient passing game and heavy ground attack in the semi-finals.

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Of Saturday’s four matchups, the Big 10 championship game was the most tightly contested and the root of the selection controversy.  Ohio State largely dominated Wisconsin, but the Buckeyes, as they were prone to do this season, let the Badgers hang around. The Wisconsin offense struggled all game to move the football, but thanks to Buckeyes’ errors, they still had a chance to win the contest.  Although the game did not feel close, with just under three minutes left in the game, the Badgers had the ball only down six points.  Ohio State held on to win 27-21, but it was not an impressive victory.  As a result of the unconvincing victory over Wisconsin, a team who’s 12-0 record against weak opponents proved to be fraudulent, the committee decided to pick Alabama over Ohio State as the #4 seed in the playoffs.

In my previous college football article, I thought it was nearly impossible that the committee would choose an Alabama team that did not even get to their conference championship game over a Buckeye team that is on a four game winning and just won the Big 10.  I was clearly wrong.  The committee obviously has an extreme bias toward the Crimson Tide and feared not putting Nick Saban’s team in the playoff.  They placed the burden of proof on Ohio State to demonstrate that they were better than Alabama, when it should have been the other way around.  If a team does not win its conference, they should need a far superior resume than the conference champ that they are supplanting.  The Crimson Tide did not meet that criterion.  The Buckeyes won their conference and beat two top ten teams, while Alabama did not beat any.

Even though I believe that Ohio State should have been the final team in the playoff, by no means are they an unflawed team.  Their bad loss to Iowa, inconsistent play throughout the regular season and unimpressive win in the Big 10 title game are all red flags.  However, if the committee is putting a non-conference champ (Alabama) over a Power 5 conference champ (Ohio State) simply because they “think” that Alabama is better, why even keep score?  On Sunday’s selection show, the committee proved that they no longer care about winning games.  They demonstrated that the selection of the final four teams is solely based on their subjective eye test.  That is dangerous!

To recap, the playoff consists of the champions of ACC (Clemson), SEC (Georgia), Big 12 (Oklahoma) and Alabama.  The semi-final round will be played on New Year’s Day:
#1 Clemson vs #4 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl at 8:45pm
#2 Oklahoma vs #3 Georgia in the Rose Bowl at 5:00pm

Hopefully the playoff games will be more compelling than last weekend’s conference championship games.  Now, all we can do is wait.  Check back around New Year’s to see my predictions for this year’s playoffs.

If you have any questions, comments or criticisms feel free to reach out to me at mattlinder2@gmail.com