The 2014 College Football Playoff can’t come soon enough. All season the pundits have been speculating what if the Playoff was implemented this season? But, that’s just four measly teams! That just won’t do. Four teams is not a Playoff.
Below, you will see a Playoff!
CraveOnline’s college football experts took the bowl teams and seeded them in a March Madness-style 64 team tournament. The teams are seeded according to their current BCS rank or ranking based on other combined ranks. (CBS’s combined rankings of all FBS teams, with non-bowl eligible teams taken out.) The seeds were then arranged to eliminate games played this season and the conferences were spread out over the four regions. When possible, teams were put in their respective regions.
We mostly picked the higher seeds, but here and there a few upsets are sprinkled in, including:
BYU over Miami — BYU is riding a five game win streak after some early mistakes, like the loss at Virginia. Since the bad start, BYU has been a pretty disciplined team and that’s what the Hurricanes lacked this year. It would be close, but we give the edge to the Cougars.
Ole Miss over USC — Possibly no other team is in bigger disarray than the Trojans going into the bowl season. It is possible that Steve Sarkisian takes over early if this tournament was real, but we have to assume that Offensive Coordinator Clay Helton is still coaching if they play Ole Miss. That is not good.
Louisville over Oklahoma (2nd round) — The Cardinals and Sooners have been hot and cold all season, but we think Teddy Bridgewater would carry this team deep into the tournament, beating out a barely above mediocre Sooner team that got whooped by Texas and Baylor and had a few close calls.
Fresno State over LSU (2nd round) — We simply don’t see how LSU survives two rounds of a tournament. They will be limping into the bowl season as is. They may get past an imploding Texas Tech with a departing QB but they couldn’t get past the upstart Fresno State.
Northern Illinois over UCF (2nd round) — UCF deserves their Fiesta Bowl shot, but speaking frankly, they almost lost to South Florida and Temple and were a miracle one handed catch away from the Russell Athletic Bowl.
Stanford over Michigan State (Elite 8) — While technically an upset, the Cardinal and Spartans are very even. We think it would be no contest when matched up. They have similar defenses but Stanford’s dynamic offense would prevail.
In the end we still have Florida State playing Auburn in the National Championship. Like most tournaments, the best teams still end up winning it all.
Nick Reddoch is a guest reporter for CraveOnline.
Brian Reddoch is a CraveOnline reporter and rabid fan of all teams Seattle. You can follow him on Twitter @ReddReddoch or “like” CraveOnline Sports on Facebook.
Photo Credit: (T. Bridgewater) Getty
