NCAA Football 2015-2016 Thread

UncleSam

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Not sure how this hasn't been made yet honestly.

As a fan of Michigan, Notre Dame, and marginally Northwestern, I think this season is pretty awesome so far.

Does anyone else think that Michigan State and TCU are vastly overrated? Predictions on the CFP bracket/national champion?

There's a ton of huge games next week to boot, of which the two biggest are probably Alabama v Georgia and Notre Dame v Clemson, where both Alabama and Notre Dame are underdogs on the road.

Oh and the latest rankings:
AP Poll
1 Ohio State
2 Michigan State
3 Ole Miss
4 TCU
5 Baylor
6 Notre Dame
7 UCLA
8 Georgia
9 LSU
10 Utah
11 Florida State
12 Clemson
13 Alabama
14 Texas A&M
15 Oklahoma
16 Northwestern
17 USC
18 Stanford
19 Wisconsin
20 Oklahoma State
21 Mississippi State
22 Michigan
23 West Virginia
24 California
25 Florida
 
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Smogon cares very little for the UU meta of football, these threads are late/not very active every year.

TCU is probably overrated, great teams don't win by one possession against crappy teams, but they're probably talented enough to turn it around. Since they play Baylor and Oklahoma they don't get a free pass to the playoffs at least, so either they win those two games and deserve to go or they lose one/both and won't go.

MSU (and Ole Miss) get the benefit of the CFB polls being complete and utter ass. Oregon was #7 when MSU beat them at home, so naturally people were going to put a ton of stock in that and bump MSU to the top of the polls. Since then, Oregon has gotten blown out by Utah and dropped out of the top 25, so in retrospect that MSU win is basically worthless (and perhaps even a detriment, because they only won by 3 points!)

Ole Miss will be in the same boat, Alabama is overrated this year and will probably lose twice more this year. That win against Bama looks great now, but it probably won't in a few weeks (or maybe even by Sunday).

This is why the polls shouldn't even start until at least midway through the season, and even though the important one now doesn't start for a while the voters still (perhaps subconsciously) put some weight into the polls they've seen throughout the season. We can't stop complaining until the playoffs reaches 8 or 16 teams :X
 
Cliffs: SEC is overrated, Ohio State is the best. (Am I doing it right Mr.E ?)

TCU isn't overrated - they're doing what they can with all their injuries (rivaled possibly by only Arkansas, UCLA, and Notre Dame) but got lucky against what the casual fan perceives to be a bad (but actually much improved) TTU team.

MSU is a bit overrated. They haven't impressed against their cupcakes and we know Oregon was overrated and not just from that blowout against the Utes.
 
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Stallion

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We should've fucking beaten OSU. Losing Jordan Howard hurt my soul, yet we still came within yards of the biggest upset in program history.
 

UncleSam

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How so?

OSU and MSU are overrated sure, but Michigan/Northwestern/Iowa are really good. The Big Ten deserves the five ranked teams it has, it just might deserve for those teams to all be in the middle of the rankings instead of 1/2 and three low ones.

In other news, my Fighting Irish found a way to thoroughly outplay Clemson on the road and lose. Fumble at their five yard line followed by two missed two point conversions to lose by two is just a really stupid way to lose.
 
even if they beat OSU and basically prove they're the best B10 team, they still can't make the playoffs

RIP Michigan
 

UncleSam

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Super belated but I got up and walked away content with the W even if not super impressed by the play against MSU.

Then I decided I should go back and watch the formalities.

:(
 

jacob

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Iowa is having a great season so far and to everyone saying they don't deserve their high ranking at least Iowa keeps winning unlike Baylor and Stanford who people were saying should be ranked above them. The playoffs are looking like a wrap except for OU who have to beat MSU Michigan and then Iowa( if Iowa wins they make playoffs). Only way a big 12 team makes playoffs is it ND loses or the big 10 don't have an undeafted team
 

UncleSam

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Uh if Oklahoma state wins out ND will be left out. Outside of that if Michigan beats Ohio State or Stanford beats ND (or North Carolina wins the ACC) the Big 12 will get in.
 

Mr.E

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Shocked to say, OSU (THE Ohio State University) may actually still have a shot at the playoff? More than I thought, anyway.

1) Clemson, 2) Alabama, 3) Oklahoma, 4) Iowa, 5) Michigan State, 6) Ohio State, 7) Stanford, 8) Notre Dame, 9) Florida State, 10) North Carolina

So OU is obviously in, plus the winner of Iowa/MSU. The other two spots if Clemson and/or Bama lose?

Florida dropped way too far to get in at this point even if they're the SEC winner (wow), clearly the committee is unimpressed with their resumé.
The loser of Iowa/MSU will obviously drop below OSU, they're out. Anyone else not playing this weekend has no opportunity to jump OSU, including ND and FSU.

I expect Stanford is in if they win, but does North Carolina jump them? All the talking heads seem unimpressed with them, and of course they're three slots below now. But Clemson would also be a rather impressive win, much more so than a four-loss USC, and they'd have a better record. If not, do they even jump OSU were Bama also to fall? I originally thought it was a foregone conclusion, but now I'm not quite sure. I still think yes, because Clemson is going to be a far more impressive win than whatever OSU has (losing to the best team on their schedule, MSU), but OSU would have the overall strength-of-schedule advantage still and there could be some lingering bias surrounding their big name and status as defending champions. Maybe it even depends on whether UNC wins a squeaker or blows Clemson out.

The other thing I question is... Does Clemson still stay in the top four if everyone loses and it's a close loss? Bama has to be out with two losses, but Clemson would only have one loss to a UNC team right behind them in the rankings (were Clemson to stay above them) and two impressive wins over #8 and #9 still (who will move 1-3 spots up themselves). UNC would have beaten Clemson head-to-head, which is impressive in its own right, but their overall SoS is still relatively garbage including their loss to a terrible South Carolina team. OSU, of course, lost to their best opponent and their only other ranked win is over #15 Michigan.

So I'm looking at:

Oklahoma is in.
Winner of Iowa/MSU is in.
---
Clemson in if they win, Bama in if they win.
If one of Clemson/Bama loses, Stanford in if they win.
If both Clemson/Bama loses, Stanford in if they win. One of Clemson/UNC/OSU in.
If all three Clemson/Bama/Stanford lose, two of Clemson/UNC/OSU in.
---
Loser of Iowa/MSU out.
Everyone else not playing championship weekend or outside the Top 10 cockblocked by OSU. Notably: ND, FSU, Florida.

Ye?
 

idiotfrommars

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I think if Clemson and Stanford both lose then OSU has a shot to get in over UNC. It would be close with the potential for Clemson to drop to 4 and stay above OSU, or for Clemson to jump them, but I can see it happening. Like you said, they have the allure of being a big name and winning the championship last year, so I'm sure E$PN would love to see them in the playoffs. I also feel like if all three of Clemson/Bama/Stanford lose they put OSU in over 2 ACC schools. The B1G has been a stronger conference this year and UNC has the issue of the lost to South Carolina and the two wins of FCS schools that blemish their resume. I still think that Bama and Stanford win and we have a pretty clear cut top 4, but a Buckeye has to hope.
 
The committee has repeatedly said that conference champions are valued much more highly than teams that don't win them. I would not be surprised if a win over Clemson lets UNC jump OSU + loser of Iowa/MSU, and I would not be surprised if Stanford jumped Oklahoma. Since Bama losing to Florida is probably almost impossible (Florida might be the shittiest 10-2 team to ever come out of the SEC) I wouldn't expect OSU has a legitimate shot at the playoffs. Still, the committee is fairly new, and until they get pressed into one of these situations (conference winner jumping a "significantly better" non conference winner to make it in) it's impossible to say what they'd do about it.

I really do want to see someone jump Oklahoma though, only for the Big 12 to get a wake up call and add two more teams to return that conference championship.
 

DetroitLolcat

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If North Carolina gets in then the whole CFP committee needs to be tarred and feathered. UNC has no quality wins, will only have 1 (albeit a very nice one) if they beat Clemson, and scheduled two power 5 bottom feeders and two FCS teams as out-of-conference opponents. If they get in over a Pac-12 champion Stanford then the CFP committee is blatantly discouraging teams from scheduling quality opponents. Even non-conference champions like (blech) Ohio State or the loser of the B1G title game should get in over North Freaking Carolina.
 

idiotfrommars

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The only team that might jump Oklahoma is the winner of the B1G championship game. Oklahoma is the only one loss team in the Big 12 so their lack of a championship game is irrelevant.
 

xJownage

Even pendulums swing both ways
The call last night on the clemson game was utterly shameful and I was disgusted after watching a great game. I literally turned the tv off and went straight to bed. that was the 3rd time this year the ACC refs have thrown a game (Miami vs. Duke, Miami vs. UNC, and this) and it's repulsive. I'm ashamed to be a fan of an ACC team right now.
 

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