Bowl Predictions 2014: Updated Playoff Projections After Week 13 Results
The more things change, the more they stay the same in college football. Every playoff contender won on Saturday, although some made it look a lot easier than others.
Alabama handled its business against lowly Western Carolina, Oregon destroyed Colorado, Baylor pulled away from Oklahoma State, Mississippi State crushed Vanderbilt, Ohio State needed an impressive fourth quarter to beat Indiana and Florida State once again squeaked by, this time against Boston College.
Here is a look at the updated playoff projections after the Week 13 results.
Playoff Projections
Sugar Bowl: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 Baylor
Rose Bowl: No. 2 Florida State vs. No. 3 Oregon
Championship Bowl (in Arlington, Texas): TBD (semifinal winners)
Week 13 Twitter Reaction for Playoff Contenders
Call it luck all you want, but at some point Florida State deserves credit for finding a way to win every single time in the final minutes. It did so again on Saturday against Boston College when it won 20-17 on a field goal in the final seconds.
ESPN Stats & Info noted that it was business as usual for the Seminoles, while Paul Myerberg of USA Today pointed out the most important stat of all:
Alok Pattani of ESPN Stats & Info acknowledged that the Seminoles may not have been as close to losing as it appeared, while Chantel Jennings of ESPN.com took the subjective point of view (that is hard to argue against):
"FSU win prob graph vs BC. Despite "only" 3-pt W, never trailed, controlled game much better than in several other Ws. pic.twitter.com/LNTnvw355T
— Alok Pattani (@AlokPattaniESPN) November 23, 2014"
Another playoff contender that struggled in the first three quarters of its game was Ohio State, but the Buckeyes did dominate the fourth quarter against Indiana on the way to a 42-27 victory. J.T. Barrett broke some records along the way, although he didn’t seem too excited about it in the aftermath and was more focused on the task at hand, via Jeff Svoboda of Buckeye Sports Bulletin:
Despite the close win, Bleacher Report’s Ben Axelrod believes that the Buckeyes control their own destiny, as long as Wisconsin is the opponent in the Big Ten Championship Game:
The team right behind Ohio State in the most recent College Football Playoff rankings was Baylor, and it looked impressive in a dominating 49-28 win over Oklahoma State. Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News acknowledged how unstoppable the offense was all game:
Another high-octane offense, Oregon, destroyed Colorado’s overmatched defense and won 44-10. SportsCenter pointed out that quarterback Marcus Mariota set some records, while Rob Moseley of GoDucks.com passed along the Heisman Trophy contender’s quote after the game:
Elsewhere, ESPN Stats & Info noted how helpless Vanderbilt was against Mississippi State:
The Week 13 prime-time matchup featured UCLA crushing its crosstown rival USC, 38-20. Arash Markazi of ESPN pointed out that the tide has turned in this showdown, while Lindsey Thiry of the Los Angeles Times noticed that the Bruins fans were having some fun in the fourth quarter:
Danny Kannell of ESPN gave some credit to the Bruins for the victory:
One team that will not be making the College Football Playoff is Michigan, which lost again on Saturday, this time to Maryland. It inspired a response from Michigan congressman John Dingell:
The next step in the race for the playoffs is the release of the new rankings on Tuesday.
There probably won’t be much movement in the top seven considering all the playoff contenders won except TCU, which had a bye week, although there is a chance Baylor could move up after an impressive showing. While Ohio State didn’t look as dominant against Indiana, Minnesota’s victory over Nebraska should help the Buckeyes’ cause since the Golden Gophers are one of their marquee wins.
UCLA could move up from its No. 9 spot since No. 8 Ole Miss lost in convincing fashion against Arkansas on Saturday.
With rivalry showdowns and conference championships on the horizon, the most important thing moving forward will be simply winning games. That is the only way to get into the playoffs at this point.
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