The 2015-2016 college football season is finally underway and we have had an exciting year so far. Last year we saw the very first college football playoffs with a bracket style of tournaments to get to the National Championship. In previous years, the NCAA selection committee chose which two teams played against each other in the National Championship and then chose who would play in other bowl games such as the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl. The new system is that four teams are selected by the committee based on evaluation of strength, schedule, record, and team statistics. Then the two sets of teams would play each other in the semifinals and the winners went to the Championship game. The system now is also that the 2 semifinalists are playing in the Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, Peach Bowl or the Sugar Bowl. For example, last year, Oregon defeated Florida State 59-20 in the Rose Bowl Semifinal game and Ohio State beat Alabama 42-35 in the Sugar Bowl Semifinal game, so therefore, Oregon and Ohio State went to the National Championship. Get it? Good.
Now that we have that out of the way, who is going to go to the dance this year? In the college football rankings, if the season ended today the top 4 teams, would be the Clemson Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, Iowa Hawkeyes and Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Clemson and Iowa remain undefeated at 11-0 and Alabama and Notre Dame are both 10-1. So, on the outside looking in, who has the best chance of the team? I believe Oklahoma has a legitimate argument seeing as they beat a top five team, Baylor, two weeks ago and have maintained a 10-1 record with their only loss coming to Texas. Michigan State is another team that I think has a real chance, especially since they knocked off the reigning national champions, Ohio State, last week and maintain a 9-1 record. I also believe that Baylor has a stake in this as well. They’ve scored 60 points or more 5 weeks in a row, have only lost one game to #5 Oklahoma, and beat the #4 team Oklahoma State who was undefeated last week.
Of the current top 4 teams I would leave Clemson, Alabama, and Iowa right where they are. Clemson is undefeated and have played 3 ranked teams so far. One of their wins was against #4 Notre Dame so as of right now they are a lock in. Alabama has only lost one game and it was a fluke loss to Ole Miss who has seen tons of struggle since that victory. However, `Bama has played six ranked teams and beaten five of them in a thoroughly convincing fashion. Those wins include a 30-17 win over Wisconsin, 38-10 over Georgia, 43-24 over Texas A&M, 30-16 over LSU and 31-6 over Mississippi State, so their strength of schedule alone gets them in. Iowa is another undefeated team and even though their strength of schedule isn’t that great, they still haven’t lost so that alone should keep them in the top four. Now, Notre Dame is questionable, they are 10-1 along with eight other teams. So yes, they do have a good record, but I don’t think they have a true quality win. Michigan State is the team that I would place at #4 due to the fact that they knocked off #3 Ohio State and the fact that they beat #12 Michigan. They should be #4, Notre Dame at #5, Oklahoma at #6 and Baylor at #7.
So all in all, I think that the season should finish out with Clemson at #1, Alabama #2, Iowa #3 and Michigan State #4. Clemson will play Michigan State in the Orange Bowl and Iowa will play Alabama in the Cotton Bowl. I believe that Clemson will end up beating Michigan State and Alabama will destroying Iowa. This would make the National Championship be between Alabama and Clemson, where Alabama will take all. These are my predictions on the season. What do you think? Comment your thoughts below!
Written by Kenny Quinn
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