Texas over Alabama and Washington over Oregon are great wins. Michigan over Ohio State is also a great win. Alabama over Georgia is a great win. How is any of that controversial?
Any win over a top 10 team is a great win in my book. I'm not trying to say they beat a greatest of all time contender or something. Washington's schedule is full of ranked teams and non-ranked teams with winning records. The only teams Michigan played in their first 9 games that finished over .500 are UNLV and Bowling Green. So as shitty as their non-conference was, it would have been stronger than their conference schedule if not for Ohio State and Penn State.
Washington's schedule was solid. Lots of good to great teams on it. The only thing remotely surprising about Michigan's schedule is that UNLV finished with a winning record. So it's a little bit better than it looked going into the season, but it's still UNLV.
Yeah, it's kind of like one of those good seasons Boise State put together, where they would go on the road and beat Oregon week 1 and then destroy a bunch of hapless Mountain West schools, with the occasional showdown against Utah or TCU.
It's kind of splitting hairs. Not sure Iowa and Penn State are 10 win teams in other conferences. I think Ohio State probably beats FSU. No way any other team on that schedule does. It's also ridiculous that Michigan didn't schedule a single P5 opponent out of conference. At least FSU tried to make up for their shitty conference schedule.
East Carolina (2-10)
UNLV (9-4)
Bowling Green (7-5)
Rutgers (6-6)
Nebraska (5-7)
Minnesota (5-7)
Indiana (3-9)
Michigan State (4-8)
Purdue (4-8)
Penn State (10-2)
Maryland (7-5)
Ohio State (11-1)
Yeah, I'd say that schedule is god awful by any standard.
The nice thing about a 4 team playoff is that the regular season matters. When they expand to 12 teams next year, that won't be the case and even undefeated teams like FSU will get in.
Alabama wasn't exactly setting the world on fire against USF, Auburn, aggy, and Arkansas. Plus they lost a game. Seems close enough that it probably would have been better to put the undefeated ACC champ into the playoffs. I get that the ACC was a dead conference walking, anyway, but it at least had a few years left.
They had that argument yesterday, but now that the ACC has had an undefeated champ not be able to get into a 4 team playoff, I think it's fair to say the ACC is no longer a P5 conference.
If I got a new boss and had to sit through a presentation about how we all suck and the replacements are coming before any of us had even met him, I'd probably go get a job elsewhere. But I guess if my employer was as awful as a 1-11 football team, I'd probably find work elsewhere before the new boss even showed up.
Seeding is going to make a big difference in a 12 team playoff, and I'd imagine a conference championship with only one loss would put you in pretty good position to get a first round bye.
Maybe. Michigan spent a lot of time being mediocre to awful between Carr and Harbaugh. Maybe they go back to that when Harbaugh eventually leaves or gets fired.
Well, they should miss if they end up in a 3 way tie, because that's what the stupid rules say. Changing the rules shouldn't be possible during the season.