College Football Playoff Matchups We Want to See the Most
The first College Football Playoff featured a pair of dream matchups: Nick Saban vs. Urban Meyer in one game and Jameis Winston vs. Marcus Mariota in the other.
Can any 2015 matchup top those?
Maybe. The last matchup on this list probably would, but the others would struggle to beat Saban and Meyer's first meeting since Meyer left the SEC and two Heisman Trophy winners sharing one field.
Regardless, some matchups are dripping with intrigue that we're rooting for more than others. That intrigue can be football-related (how two teams match up) or narrative-related (how off-field stories color the game) so long as it makes us desperate to watch.
Losses last week made my personal favorite—USC vs. Alabama: The Lane Kiffin Bowl—significantly less likely, but there are still plenty of options to watch for. Using teams from the Associated Press Top 15 as a guideline, here are the best realistic matchups.
TCU vs. Ole Miss
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Storyline: Revenge of the 2014 Peach Bowl
After dropping from the top four of last year's final CFP rankings, TCU stormed the Peach Bowl and laid a whooping on Ole Miss.
The Horned Frogs won the first quarter 14-0, the second quarter 14-0 and the third quarter 14-0, coasting into the fourth quarter with a 42-0 lead. They took their feet off the gas and won 42-3, but the statement they sent could be heard from coast to coast, especially during a three-day span in which LSU, Auburn and Mississippi State also lost from the SEC West.
"I didn't have our kids prepared to play at a level that they deserved to be able to play and compete today," Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze told reporters after the game.
You think?
But now Ole Miss has about it a vital energy. Instead of being led by its defense, it has rallied around JUCO transfer Chad "Swag" Kelly at quarterback and a healthy Laquon Treadwell at receiver.
TCU, meanwhile, has looked every bit as potent as last year on offense but significantly less potent on defense, which furthers the case for this becoming a shootout.
Revenge games and shootouts are two of the main things we're looking for. This one promises both.
Michigan State vs. Ohio State
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Storyline: Paaaawl, how'd the Big Ten get two teams, Paaaawl!?
When the playoff was first announced, the first question asked by most in SEC country was: "Can one conference get two bids?"
Ostensibly, they were asking for themselves. The SEC is, by most accounts, the best conference in college football; as recently as three weeks ago, it broke a record with 10 teams ranked in the AP Top 25. If any league was ever to get two bids, it would have to be them, right?
Right?!
Paaaawl?!
But maybe not. The Big Ten has the top two teams in the current AP rankings—Ohio State and Michigan State—and while both can't win the conference title, there is a reasonable scenario where both finish the year in the Top Four, as Kevin Trahan of SB Nation laid out.
Michigan State visits Columbus on Nov. 21. If both teams enter undefeated, the Buckeyes win a competitive game, and then both teams win the rest of their games, Ohio State would be a 13-0 Big Ten champion (an easy playoff inclusion and the likely No. 1 seed) and Michigan State would be 11-1 with its only loss on the road against a playoff team.
Who would have a better quality loss?
The thought of these teams meeting in the semifinal, where it would ensure the Big Ten a spot in the title game, or in the title game, where it would launch 1,000 stories about the Rise of the Big Ten, bring smiles to the faces of everyone in Big Ten country. But more, it brings smiles to the faces of everyone imagining the reaction in SEC country.
There aren't enough Paul Finebaum producers in the world.
Oregon vs. TCU
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Storyline: All of the Points
One side features Trevone Boykin, Aaron Green, Josh Doctson, Kolby Listenbee, Ty Slanina and (by then) Deante' Gray.
The other side features Vernon Adams, Royce Freeman, Byron Marshall, Bralon Addison, Dwayne Stanford and Charles Nelson.
And, for the first time in a long time, neither side features a healthy, experienced or trustworthy defense.
Is 100 too many points for the total?
This one would be pure college football gluttony, an excess of high tempos, creative playbooks and track athletes on the perimeter. It would be like having a three-hour sugar rush.
Those who dislike college football would watch and use the lack of defense as an argument in favor of the NFL. But let them be that way. Who needs them? They don't know what they're talking about.
Everything about this would be gold.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Texas A&M vs. Baylor
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Storyline: O Longhorns, Where Art Thou?
For a long time these teams were Big 12 rivals—or rather, Big 12 also-rans. Texas A&M was Texas' little brother, and Baylor was Texas' infant brother. It was cute when either tried to play with the big boys, but eventually the big boys started trying.
Fast-forward to 2015. Texas A&M and Baylor are both in the AP Top 10. Both have had quarterbacks win the Heisman Trophy, both employ head coaches that Texas would kill to have hired, and both might make the playoff while Texas scores "moral victories" at home against Cal.
So there's that. But in this game there's also so much more. Aggies head coach Kevin Sumlin and Bears head coach Art Briles would ensure this game becomes a shootout. Aggies defensive end Myles Garrett and Bears defensive end Shawn Oakman are each a blast to watch. There would be so much speed at receiver that they might as well play this game on a track surface.
A&M went 23-2-1 in its last 26 meetings with Baylor, but no team other has benefited more than the Bears from leaving the Big 12. This one would be oozing with storylines.
Florida State vs. Notre Dame
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Storyline: The Everett Golson Bowl!
No potential matchup comes replete with more drama than Notre Dame vs. Florida State: The Everett Golson Bowl.
After losing his starting job to Malik Zaire, Golson transferred this winter from the Irish to the Seminoles, where he quickly won the right to replace Jameis Winston. His transition to the 'Noles has been rocky, but he's made enough plays for the team to start 3-0.
Before he left South Bend, Golson endured a complicated tenure. He led Notre Dame to the BCS National Championship Game as a redshirt freshman, missed his sophomore year with an academic suspension, returned and played like a Heisman contender for two months as a junior, but then morphed into a turnover machine in the last two months and eventually left with fans not mad to see him go.
Still, those fans know what Golson—when on—is capable of. They saw it on display in various difficult spots, including last year in Tallahassee, when he almost led the Irish to an upset of the No. 1 Seminoles but lost on a controversial offensive pass-interference call.
Even if Golson hadn't swapped uniforms, that call would have put Notre Dame-FSU on this list. The addition of such a unique, Shakespearean personal drama (Golson would be Coriolanus) puts it above the rest of the pack, even if Zaire's broken ankle, which ended his season two weeks ago, dims some of the luster.
We still need this game to happen.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
