CFB' s Real Winners--and losers
Now that college football has reached the post season phase and eliminated all but four teams--Georgia,Michigan, TCU and Ohio State--as contenders for the national championship
.That issue will be settled within the next month.
What will linger for a while is the overall evaluation of the 2022 college football season.
Biggest winners
TCU is obvious. Almost no one expected the Horned Frogs make much of a jump beyond their 5-7 record of a year ago, even with new coach Sonny Dykes taking over after coming from SMU.
Well, 12-1 and a play away from a 13-0 season and a Big 12 championship is pretty good.
Tulane is another turnaround story. The Green Wave was 2-10 a year ago, but coach Willie Fritz put together a magic season which prod an 11-2 record, an American Athletic Conference title and a spot in the Cotton Bowl against USC .
USC WAS the story until Utah ended the Trojans CFP hopes with a thumping in the Pac-12 title.
But new USC coach Lincoln Riley built a Top 10 program in one year through the transfer portal and the Trojans are now back in the national spotlight.
UCONN and New Mexico State.
The two programs have new coaches and started the season ranked 128 and 131 produced 6 win seasons and are playing in bowl games.
Biggest Losers
Texas A&M is the runaway winner. Coach Jimbo Fisher had the Aggies ready for prime time with a great recruiting class, lots of NIL money and a Top 10 pre-season ranking.
Whoops.
Last place in the SEC West, a loss at home to Appalachian State and a 5-7 record are not stats you want to promote.
Miami
New Coach Mario Cristobal had the magic formula for the now long suffering Canes who have not been a national force since the start of the century. The NIL rulings offered ways the Canes could make pay for play work.
Well, Miami played, but the Canes didn't play and their Pre-season Top 20 ranking faded to a 5-7 bowl less season including an embarrassing home loss to Middle Tennessee State.
Clemson.
Yes, the Tigers were 11-2 and won the ACC and are going to the Orange Bowl, but Coach Dabo Swinney, who stubbornly refused to switch from inconsistent QB D.J. Uiagaleiei until the ACC title game against North Carolina, cost his team a chance for a playoff spot by his stubbornness when the Tigers were upset by South Carolina in their regular season finale.
A more decisive switch earlier in the year to highly touted freshman Cade Klubnik might have prevented that. It was Klubnik who took over in the ACC title game
to give the Tigers a win and a spot in the Orange Bowl.
D.J is in the transfer portal and Swinney will have to live with what might have been this season since a win over South Carolina would have put Clemson in the CFP playoffs instead of Ohio State.
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Extra points
Prediction, Colorado and new coach Deion Sanders will be the biggest story in the off season, and through the first part of next season as they attempt to do what USC did in the Pac-12 this year--become relevant with a new coach....Boston College, which tumbled to 3-9 this season has hit a new level beyond hapless: irrelevance . Just a guess but watch out for the Patriots bringing back former assistant Bill O'Brien (now the OC at Alabama) as their next OC.
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Now that we have the bowl match ups set, watch out for the defections from players who WON"T participate in bowl games which don't mean much or even some New Year's Day bowl games outside of the playoffs..