12-team CFP bracket is official: Thoughts and Takeaways
The first official 12-team College Football Playoff Bracket was released Sunday. Here are my thoughts and takeaways.
The regular season and conference championship week have come and gone, and the first official 12-team College Football Playoff bracket was released Sunday. The four highest-ranked conference champions get a bye, and the fifth conference champion, along with seven other at-large bids, will compete in the first round of the playoffs.
Here are my thoughts and takeaways from the first bracket, which will be released Sunday.
The committee got it right
Friday and Saturday results set up for an interesting bracket release and regardless of where your allegiance is, people wouldn’t be happy with how the bracket turned out.
No team was punished for losing in their conference championship. The team that fell the farthest still in the playoff is the Texas Longhorns. The Longhorns lost in overtime to the Georgia Bulldogs and Georgia moved up to the No. 2 overall seed, while Texas fell to No. 5.
There were two main controversies from the first playoff bracket. The first one was the SMU Mustangs remaining in CFP despite a three-point loss in the ACC championship against the Clemson Tigers, forcing the 9-3 Alabama Crimson Tide out of the playoffs. This caused an outrage from Alabama and SEC football fans who used the SOS (Strength of Schedule) comparison argument. Yes, the Tide had a tougher schedule in the SEC when compared to SMU’s, but, Alabama lost games that they shouldn’t have.
If you do not remember who the Crimson Tide lost to, Alabama lost to 6-6 Vanderbilt and only put up three points against the 6-6 Oklahoma Sooners. Those losses overshadow the Tide’s wins over Georgia, South Carolina and LSU.
The other controversy involved the Oregon Ducks and Penn State Nittany Lions. The two programs faced off for the Big Ten championship on Saturday, where the Ducks took down the Nittany Lions 45 to 37. However, the fuss is what Oregon has to face off against for receiving the No. 1 seed compared to Penn State, who got the No. 6 seed. The Ducks will have to face the winner of the No. 8 Ohio State-No. 9 Tennessee first-round matchup, while Nittany Lions get a much more “favorable” road to the semifinals against SMU and No. 3 seeded Boise State.
This is only happening because there will be no reseeding, which I believe should be changed in the future. However, there is nothing we can do about it now, but this playoff should be interesting.
Favorite Matchups
My favorite matchup of the playoff is an in-state matchup between the No. 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and No. 10 Indiana Hoosiers. It will be the first official game of the 12-team playoff, with the whole nation having eyes on this game. The Hoosiers and Irish will be an interesting matchup to watch in the first weekend of the playoff.
The other matchup in the first round that is one of my favorites is the No. 8 Ohio State-No. 9 Tennessee matchup in Columbus. With the game being in Columbus, there will be some unhappy Buckeye fans, especially if something does not go right. A lot of it is due to the fourth straight loss against Michigan. There will be a lot of pressure on Ohio State and especially Ryan Day. If the Buckeyes do not win, Ryan Day’s seat will be on fire.
Final Takeaways
Overall, the playoff should be interesting and will be fun to watch. There are opportunities for teams like Indiana, Boise State, or Arizona State to potentially make a run to the championship. Or it could just be chalk and a team like Oregon or Georgia will go all the way.
These are all things that make this playoff different compared to the four-team playoff. The postseason is here and will be fun to watch.