My weekly reminder that College Football has a way of "thinning the herd" when it comes to moving towards the College Football Playoff. We go from September thinking there may be more than 4 undefeated teams to October where we wonder how the committee will choose between one loss teams.
Let's give some credit to the herd this week...which fended off any eliminations from the hopeful.
Going into last week, we were down to 4 teams that were undefeated and only 10 teams with less than 2 losses and a realistic chance to make the CFP playoffs.
And all 10 teams won....keeping themselves alive in the hunt for the coveted playoff spots.
I cautioned last week that we will not have much thinning this weekend, and I was correct. But the thinning is coming....and soon.
Weekend of November 17th "Thinning Of The Herd":
Guaranteed Thinning Will Take Place: None
"Upset Alert” Indiana (5-5) at Michigan (9-1)...will Michigan look ahead? Arizona (5-5) at Washington State (9-1)...Can we please get Mike Leach into playoffs?! West Virginia (8-1) at Oklahoma State (5-5)...OSU is best 5 loss team in the nation. Cincinnati (9-1) at UCF (10-0)...Committee is rooting for Cincy to make leaving UCF out again easier. Syracuse (8-2) at Notre Dame (10-0)...by far the most compelling game of the week.
Will Keep Winning....For Now Ohio State (9-1) at Maryland (5-5)...Byrd Stadium is a weird, wild, place. Duke (7-3) at Clemson (10-0)...Military Appreciation and a night home game, finally! Kansas (3-7) at Oklahoma (9-1)...even a terrible Sooner defense won't stop them this week. The Citadel(4-5) at Alabama (10-0)...Embarrassing this game is being played in November. Umass (4-7) at Georgia (9-1)...Part II of embarrassment in playing this game in November.
On the surface, this week seems like another quiet week of upsets ahead of the Week 13 showdowns. But there is just no way the football gods will allow two weeks in a row of herd not being thinned.
I think 2 will go down. 1 for this past week's generosity from the gods, and 1 for next week.
The college football season has a way of “thinning the herd”....even when you least expect it!