1. At some point on Halloween, the first rankings for the College Football Playoff will be announced. There are a bunch of teams that are jumbled up around the top, and if we listen to the robots, they don’t even have an SEC team making the playoffs at the moment. (As always, this is why we should never listen to robots.)
There are obvious spots ahead where the ranks will be thinned–for instance, ESPN’s robot has Michigan and Ohio State in the top four, but they play each other later this month. But enough about robots. If I had to pick four teams for the playoffs starting today, here’s how I would go…
1. Georgia – I know UGA hasn’t had the most challenging schedule thus far, but their next three opponents are all ranked, plus there’s whoever they’ll play in the SEC title game, assuming they get there. Still, at the moment I don’t know how you can leave out an undefeated two-time defending champ. And the SEC may be down compared to years past, but the best team from the conference must be in the playoffs. It’s a rule.
2. Ohio State – Like I said, either Ohio State or Michigan will emerge from the B1G, and I think thus far the best team has been Ohio State, who have beaten two top 10 teams, versus Michigan, who hasn’t even played a ranked opponent. If Ohio State wins out and then loses to Michigan, I think they’re still in the mix. But if there are three other undefeated teams remaining, I don’t know if the Buckeyes will have a valid argument.
OR
Michigan – All that being said, if Michigan beats Ohio State, they’re in. Will Spygate become a thing and cause some sort of immediate punishment for the Wolverines? No idea, but for now I just know it’s hard to keep Michigan out. Also, I hate citing Gary Danielson, but as he said about Georgia over the weekend, when people ask who they’ve beaten, the answer is everybody. And that’s certainly true of Michigan.
3. Florida State – The Noles beat LSU to start the season, which was huge, and since then they’ve coasted to an undefeated record. They haven’t played any great teams, but they have played a lot of good teams – almost everyone was .500 or better when they played against FSU. They don’t have another ranked opponent on their schedule, and their best future game will probably be in the championship game against whoever finishes second in the ACC (Louisville?).
4. Washington – I wrote about Utah last week and how much fun they’ve been this season, and then they got drilled by Oregon this weekend. The only game Oregon lost was to Washington, who are currently 8-0. Washington’s schedule is a gauntlet the rest of the way – USC, Utah, Oregon St., Washington St., and then presumably the Pac 12 championship game. If they can make it unscathed through all of that, they deserve to be in.
2. If this was an eight-team playoff, who would be the next four teams in? The lesser of OSU/Michigan, plus whoever finishes second in the Pac 12 (Oregon?), either Oklahoma or Texas (I guess OU since they beat Texas head-to-head), and Alabama. To me, at least.
3. When will football coaches be able to challenge penalty calls? I saw numerous awful calls all weekend, many of them just flat wrong. For instance, a Steelers player was penalized for being offsides on a field goal attempt, but…he wasn’t?
The Steelers had to back up five yards, and they missed the ensuing kick.
During the Colorado game on Saturday, Shedeur Sanders was flagged for intentional grounding on a play where his arm was hit by a helmet while passing.
Look, referees aren’t perfect, we all understand that. But if they’re responsible for calling out every little thing that goes wrong, it seems fair that coaches should be able to get a do-over when the refs are wrong, doesn’t it?