Week 10 Gives Preview of Potential CFB Playoff Chaos in Final Year with Four Teams
We were promised chaos when it all began, and we believed it because we didn't know any better.
When the BCS gave way to the College Football Playoff, we assumed the selection committee would struggle with the task of filling the postseason. With four vacancies to fill each year, the notion of trying to fill them cleanly seemed preposterous.
Ten years later, a new norm has emerged. The committee has largely had it easy if we're being honest. Those difficult decisions haven't truly emerged, and the semifinal games have not exactly produced on a regular basis on the other side.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Oh, and this shiny new four-team format? It isn't exactly shiny or new anymore. Nor will it exist one year from now. The four-team playoff will become a 12-team format starting next season—in part because the current format has lacked drama.
In the final year of a four-team playoff, however, chaos is finally brewing. Drama is mounting. And while we're ready to say farewell to this current format regardless of the outcome, this might finally be the year that generates some juice.
If nothing else, Week 10 provided a few fascinating pieces of evidence that this outcome could be coming.
Do we have a dominant team right now? If we do, well, it hasn't exactly jumped off the page.
Georgia conquered Missouri at home in its first real test of the season, and the Bulldogs deserve credit for that. But this wasn't an overwhelming win for a program that has won back-to-back national championships.
That same can be said about Ohio State, which debuted at No. 1 in the first College Football Playoff Rankings on Tuesday. The Buckeyes struggled for much of the afternoon against Rutgers, once again relying on its defense to do the heavy lifting. While Ohio State eventually pulled away, one can't help but wonder how this offense will perform when pushed against a better program.
On the topic of better programs on the Buckeyes' schedule, Michigan unleashed another sizable win over an overmatched opponent. Purdue was no match for the Wolverines, which we knew going in.
The Wolverines are clearly talented, although a sign-stealing scandal has consumed the spotlight of late. Will it have an impact on the season? Could Jim Harbaugh be suspended in the weeks ahead?
Regardless, the questions near the top translate down the rankings as well. Florida State wasn't exactly dominant against Pittsburgh, Texas gave up a sizable lead and barely hung on against Kansas State, and Washington needed to post a basketball score to get past USC.
Oklahoma wasn't as lucky. The Sooners' playoff push took a catastrophic detour with a loss to Oklahoma State in the last rivalry game between the two for the foreseeable future. While Notre Dame's inclusion in the playoff was unlikely already, we can cross the Irish off the list after losing at Clemson.
On the winning side, Alabama is undeniably a factor. The Crimson Tide summoned enough offense to take down a very capable LSU team in Tuscaloosa. If the offense plays like that, the Crimson Tide can win every remaining game.
Elsewhere, Oregon clobbered Cal and currently looks like a team no other squad would want to play. Louisville crept a little closer to the conversation after a dominating win over Virginia Tech. And Ole Miss survived a mighty surge from Texas A&M to remain one of the more under discussed playoff threats still in the mix.
All of this is to say that we have major questions entering the homestretch of the season. The chess pieces moved forward (and backward) on Saturday, and they will continue to do so. But for it being November, it feels like we still have more questions about most teams than answers.
How these questions translate to filling the postseason will ultimately dictate if this is the year that the selection committee finally has a difficult decision to make.
Perhaps it's more wishful thinking than anything else.
Each time we have filled the postseason since its inception in 2014, we've largely known the answers before they were provided. It was never expected to be what it has become. But conference championships have largely gone as expected, and the pieces have naturally fallen conveniently into place.
It would be fitting that in its final year, the College Football Playoff broke contain. And with teams like Oregon and Alabama emerging as true threats outside the current bracket—which is nothing more than a placeholder at the moment—why not now?
All of the ingredients are there. At the top, no team feels unbeatable. And across the top 10 and perhaps even in a little beyond, there are capable teams that are situated to go on run.
The first round of upsets has started, and the shake ups have begun. With huge games on the horizon, including a slew of matchups ready to create more movement next week, the in-season chaos will continue.
The only hope is that in its last act, the four-team playoff can match. The teams are in place, and the pieces are aligned. Before it is put to rest, the selection committee must squirm at least once. The playoff, as it exists a little while longer, must finally provide us with what we thought we were getting.
At long last, let there be chaos.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
