Bowl Predictions 2014: Updated Playoff Projections After Week 14 Results
There was heartbreak, hatred, overwhelming joy and incredibly tense moments throughout Week 14 of the college football season, and the playoff picture looks just a bit different as a result.
Alabama found a way to give up 44 points and still look impressive, Mississippi State saw its playoff hopes go up in smoke, Baylor escaped a fourth-quarter charge from a significant underdog, Oregon rolled once again, and Ohio State won on the field but suffered a devastating loss on the injury report the same day.
To nobody’s surprise, Florida State also managed to find yet another way to snatch victory from the (Gator) jaws of defeat Saturday in the final minutes.
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Here’s a look at what the latest playoff projections look like after an action-packed day of college football.
Scott Polacek's Playoff Projections
Sugar Bowl: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 Ohio State
Rose Bowl: No. 2 Oregon vs. No. 3 Florida State
Championship Bowl (in Arlington, Texas): TBD (semifinal winners)
Odds Shark National Championship Odds
| Alabama | 19/10 |
| Oregon | 77/20 |
| Florida State | 15/2 |
| Ohio State | 6/1 |
| Baylor | 8/1 |
| TCU | 8/1 |
*Odds to win national championship courtesy of Odds Shark, as of Sunday morning at 12:30 a.m. ET.
Week 14 Playoff Race Results
The most entertaining game of the day came in the Iron Bowl when an aerial show from the Big 12 broke out in the disguise of an SEC game.
Alabama survived three Blake Sims interceptions and 206 receiving yards from Auburn’s Sammie Coates to win 55-44. Amari Cooper looked like a robot specifically designed in Tuscaloosa to dominate the Tigers secondary and finished with a ridiculous 224 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
Sims' early struggles were very uncharacteristic of a Nick Saban quarterback, as ESPN Stats & Info pointed out, but he eventually figured out that if you throw the ball anywhere within Cooper’s vicinity, he is going to catch it:
Elsewhere in the SEC, Mississippi State lost the Egg Bowl to Ole Miss 31-17 and essentially dropped out of the playoff picture.
Rebels quarterback Bo Wallace threw for 296 yards on a hurt ankle and commented on the performance after the game via ESPN.com: "I knew this game would define my legacy. I had to win this game to be remembered like I want. ... I hope they'll remember as a guy who gave his all ever single game and won a lot of games."
Ohio State, Baylor and TCU fans were certainly glad Wallace defined his legacy with a victory over the No. 4 team.
It should come as no surprise that the team right ahead of Mississippi State in the College Football Rankings, Florida State, struggled throughout its game against Florida before eventually winning at the end, 24-19.
SportsCenter passed along a stat that virtually summarizes the Seminoles’ entire charmed year:
Regardless of whether it was impressive or not, Florida State won the game and was part of the ACC’s brutal treatment of the SEC on Saturday.
The ACC went 4-0 against the powerful, invincible SEC (Florida State over Florida, Clemson over South Carolina, Georgia Tech over Georgia and Louisville over Kentucky), which garnered this statistic from Aaron Schoonmaker of WRALSportsFan.com:
Along the same escape lines as Florida State, Baylor managed to survive a 19-3 charge in the final quarter from Texas Tech and win 48-46. The Red Raiders had a chance to tie the game but missed a two-point conversion in the final minutes.
Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty had to leave the contest with concussion symptoms, but it was not the type of performance the Bears were looking for with the No. 4 spot in the playoffs up for grabs.
It is difficult to imagine the Bears leapfrogging Ohio State or TCU in the new rankings released Tuesday after narrowly edging a 4-8 Texas Tech squad.
The Buckeyes pulled away from Michigan, and the Horned Frogs destroyed Texas on Thanksgiving. Baylor does have that head-to-head win over TCU that will eventually come into play when its resume is more parallel with that of the Horned Frogs, but it won’t be a factor this week.
The most disheartening moment of the entire day came in Columbus when J.T. Barrett broke his ankle in Ohio State’s victory over its archrival Michigan.
Regardless of whether you cheer for the Buckeyes or not, it left a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach to see Barrett go down, especially since Braxton Miller is already out for the year. Barrett is a redshirt freshman who was blossoming into one of the sport’s brightest stars.
The disappointment from that development had a silver lining, though, in the form of incredible sportsmanship from Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner, as the Detroit Free Press noted:
While the rest of the country started its day with Ohio State beating Michigan, switched to Florida State’s nailbiter with Florida and Ole Miss’ win over Mississippi State in the afternoon and then finished with the Iron Bowl, Oregon quietly dominated Oregon State in the Civil War.
The Ducks got another vintage performance from Heisman Trophy candidate Marcus Mariota, as he tallied 406 total yards and six touchdowns in the easy victory.
SportsCenter passed along this perfectly timed picture from Brian Davies of The Register-Guard:
It won’t be long before Mariota is making the same pose with a trophy in his hands instead of the football.
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