Luicci's College Football Plus: Week 16 Recap
Five questions
Q. So, did the College Football Selection Committee get it right?
There really was no right or wrong this year because of the wide range of variables caused by the pandemic. So what the committee did was predictable: Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Notre Dame, in that order. Here’s the thing: Three of those teams have played 11 games. One – Ohio State – has played six. The Buckeyes struggled against the only two decent teams they faced (Indiana and Northwestern) and one was at home with the other on a neutral site.
ESPN analyst Joey Galloway ridiculously said on the air today that “Ohio State was a top four or five team before they played a game” so that justifies the Buckeyes being in. Really? Wisconsin and Penn State were preseason Top 10 teams as well. Both had losing seasons. Ohio State has the advantage of being a blueblood. The Buckeyes will always get the benefit of the doubt, as will a half-dozen or so other schools.
Did they earn a playoff spot this year? Debatable. But leaving Ohio State and its half-season played out of the playoffs would have meant excluding three of the Power 5 conferences. No way that was going to happen.
That’s just the reality of the current playoff system. Just as the selection committee’s clear signal to the Group of 5 schools was with these rankings: You are never getting in but keep trying.
Putting Oklahoma, which lost to sub-.500 Kansas State, at No. 6 ahead of 9-0 Cincinnati sent that message to the Group of 5 loud and clear. They will always be playoff bystanders.
Q. Are we headed for another Notre Dame postseason debacle?
Overwhelmed on Saturday by Clemson with Trevor Lawrence back for the Tigers the Irish get No. 1 Alabama in the semifinals. Good luck with that. Most college football experts know about the program’s famous nine-game bowl losing streak from 1994 to 2006. But there’s also the ongoing embarrassment since then every time the Irish play a meaningful postseason game. Notre Dame’s last six postseason wins have come in the Camping World, Citrus, Music City, Pinstripe, Sun and Hawaii bowls. What do they have in common? They’re insignificant bowl games. When it comes to meaningful bowl games Notre Dame generally isn’t competitive anymore.
The 1994 Cotton Bowl is the program’s last meaningful bowl win.
Don’t expect that to be updated this year.
Q. Did Texas A&M have a legitimate case for the No. 4 spot over Notre Dame?
The Aggies can stomp their feet and whine all they want but they could not overcome the overall mediocrity of eight of the SEC’s 12 teams – most of whom they played. The three-point home win over Florida was diminished when the Gators lost for the third time in the SEC championship game. Yes, A&M's one loss was to No. 1-ranked Alabama (by 28). But Notre Dame had more wins (10), suffered its one loss by fewer points (24), made the conference championship game and owns the best quality win in the country with its double OT victory over then-No.1 Clemson – even though the Tigers were without Lawrence that game.
Outside of Florida, the combined record of the seven other teams A&M beat was 22-47. Only Auburn, at 6-4, had a winning record among those.
Jimbo Fisher can argue all he wants about how a one-loss SEC team should not be excluded from the playoffs but the reality is this was not a typically deep year in the league. The quality was sorely lacking for all but the top four teams.
Q. When will we finally get to an eight-team playoff?
It's not only easy enough to do, it's much needed. The biggest counter-argument usually goes like this: If there's debate over the No. 4 team now there will be debate over the No. 8 team then. Maybe, but expanding to eight would eliminate almost all of the overall controversy while creating an atmosphere of inclusion. Seriously, do we really need another year of Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Notre Dame in the playoffs? Three of those were predicted to be there in August.
And it's pretty much the same teams every year.
An extra round opens up the opportunity for more upsets. It also makes things a lot neater: The Power 5 champions all get an automatic berth and there are three at-larges. That would take most of the important work out of the hands of a selection committee that showed no imagination this year and looks like all it wanted to do was protect the Power 5 schools.
Q. Why did the Pac-12 even bother this season?
If there’s a poster child for college football in 2020 it’s league commissioner Larry Scott. From the waffling on whether to have a season, to starting it later than any other Power 5 conference, to having a 9 a.m. local kickoff for a game, to seeing just five of the 12 schools able to play a full schedule, to ending up with a conference champion that wasn’t even a division winner, Scott turned the Pac-12 season into a national embarrassment. And it’s not over yet. Seven Pac-12 schools have already opted out of a bowl game while three others (1-3 Cal, 2-5 Oregon State and 0-5 Arizona) should be delighted the season has ended. That leaves Oregon and Colorado to represent the Pac-12 for its eight bowl tie-ins. We thought this college football season could not be more of a mess than it was. Scott proved us all wrong.
On the Rise
Oklahoma (8-2)
The season could have easily gone South after the Sooners started 0-2 in Big 12 play, including a loss to Iowa State. Instead, it ended with an eight-game winning streak and the program’s sixth straight conference title following a 27-21 victory on Saturday over the Cyclones.
San Jose State (7-0)
Dionne Warwick has to be beaming. The peripatetic Spartans earned their first Mountain West Conference championship and extended their best start since 1939 with Saturday’s 34-20 victory over Boise State – a team they had been 0-14 against. This marks their first winning season since 2012.
Army (9-2)
How can you not appreciate what this team has done? Black Knights captured their ninth Commander-in-Chief trophy when fullback Jakobi Buchanan blasted into the end zone on a fourth and one run with 1:13 to play in a 10-7 victory over Air Force. Army finished by winning seven of eight after a 24-10 loss to unbeaten Cincinnati.
On the decline
Marshall (7-2)
Thundering Herd featured an explosive, almost-unstoppable offense during a 7-0 start that vaulted them to No. 21 in the rankings. Then they suffered a 20-0 loss to Rice followed by a listless 22-13 home loss to UAB in the Conference-USA title game. Marshall had a combined for 513 yards in its final two games.
Washington State (1-3)
Okay, so the 45-28 loss to Utah really didn’t mean much except to result in the Cougars finishing the season with three straight losses. But consider this: They led 28-7 at halftime. Then they went into the fetal position as Utah blitzed them in the second half, outscoring Washington State 38-0 after the break. That’s not easy to do.
Tennessee (3-7)
If not for a victory over winless Vanderbilt, inept Vols would have finished the season on an eight-game losing streak. They rushed for just 24 yards, managing 213 yards of total offense, in a 34-13 home loss to Texas A&M that cast doubts on Jeremy Pruitt’s future as head coach. At the very least Pruitt will be on the hot seat to start next year.
Who’s hot
Trey Sermon, RB, Ohio State
The grad transfer from Oklahoma, who entered the Big Ten title game with 344 rushing yards and one TD for the season, exited it by adding a school-record 331 yards (and two second half TDs) to boost the Buckeyes to a 22-10 victory over Northwestern.
Trevor Lawrence, QB, Clemson
The junior reminded Notre Dame of what it missed in the first meeting between the schools, earning MVP honors in the ACC title game with a dazzling performance. Lawrence combined for 412 yards of offense (322 passing, 90 rushing) and three TDs in the 34-10 rout of the Irish. But was it too late to make a difference in the Heisman race?
Najee Harris, RB, Alabama
This spot could have gone to QB Mac Jones. Or WR Devonta Smith. But Harris’ SEC championship game record five TDs in the 52-46 victory over Florida made the difference. He rushed for 178 yards and two scores and caught five passes for 67 yards and three TDs.
Who’s not
Brock Purdy, QB, Iowa State
When the Cyclones needed their three-year starter the most the junior came up short, throwing three interceptions in the Big 12 title game loss to Oklahoma. An inexplicable decision to throw a heave under pressure with Iowa State driving for the potential winning touchdown in final minutes of the 27-21 loss was the costliest interception of all.
Jaret Patterson, RB, Buffalo
After entering the game with 1,025 rushing yards in five games, Patterson was a non-factor as No. 23 Buffalo saw its unbeaten season come to a crashing halt in a 38-28 home loss to Ball State in the MAC title game. Patterson managed just 47 yards on 18 carries and was pulled when the Bulls fell behind 38-21 in the third quarter. He had just one carry the rest of the game.
Kedon Slovis, QB, USC
The sophomore didn’t look anything like the guy who led USC to a 5-0 start with a handful of remarkable fourth-quarter performances. He never seemed to find a comfort zone, throwing three interceptions in the Trojans’ Pac-12 title game loss to Oregon.
Tom Luicci was the national college football and basketball writer for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. from 1979-2014.