The conference championship weekend is over. It pretty much went as expected. Unless you are a PAC 12 fan then you watched your conference get eliminated again before the Saturday games started. When number 13 Oregon destroyed number 5 Utah on Friday night with a 37 – 15 beat down. They made the playoff committees job just a little bit easier. They would no longer have to consider a PAC 12 team for the four spot in the playoff. Well I guess they could have if things really went crazy on Saturday. But deep down we all knew it was true. The PAC 12 has an image problem that is not going to be easily fixed. It is interesting that the conference that gets less eyes on their games during the regular season plays their Conference Championship game first. This is the sixth year of the College Football Playoff. In that time the PAC 12 has only been selected to play in it twice. Oregon in 2014 and Washington in 2016. So it really is no surprise that they will be on the outside looking in again this year.
Before this weekend started we knew that Ohio State, LSU and Clemson were going to be in. LSU and Ohio State may have been in even if they lost in their conference championship game. Unless they laid an egg and lost by double digits they were more than likely in. LSU and Ohio State put up some pretty impressive wins this year. Both teams played and beat teams that are going to finish in the top 25 of the final poll of the year. The conference championship games will probably come in to play as the tie breaker.
Big 12 Conference Championship
The Big 12 going first on Saturday put all eyes on the Big 12 game. They really needed to put on a pretty good show. At this point for all the teams going for one of the four spots. Style points are going to be very important. Since Baylor and Oklahoma had just played a few weeks ago. We knew that these two teams were pretty evenly matched. After the Oregon win in the PAC 12 game it seemed pretty clear that the winner of this game would be in line to get the four seed in the playoff. With the impressive win over Baylor. Oklahoma has put itself in line for its fourth selection to the playoff. Oklahoma has an 0 – 3 record in their previous selections. With the way that they won on Saturday it really looks like Oklahoma will get that chance to see if they can get a win in the playoff. They will be the fourth seed and will have to play either LSU or Ohio State.
SEC Conference Championship
On paper this looked like it could be a pretty close game. In reality it was a massive blow out that showed Georgia is not the team we thought they were. Ok maybe they never were. LSU jumped out to a quick 14 – 0 lead and Georgia never made it a game. They could not stop the LSU offense and the Georgia offense was helpless against the LSU defense. To make a push to jump Ohio State for the one seed. LSU needed a performance like this. An exclamation point on a dominant season. LSU did not disappoint on that. Joe Burrow had a great game throwing four touchdown passes. He also added 41 rushing yards. For a while he was the top rusher for LSU. That was the only thing on the Georgia defense that was working for most of the game was their run defense. It is not matter. If it was not clear that Joe Burrow should win the Heisman there should be no doubt now. This whole game was a Heisman moment for him.
ACC Conference Championship
Clemson did exactly what everyone expected them to do. They beat up on an over matched Virginia team. The possible win percent for Virginia in this game was probably less than a tenth of a percent. This was as close to a sure thing we have seen in a while. Well not actually that long ago. Last year in the Big Ten it was pretty certain that Ohio State would beat Northwestern. The difference with this years ACC game is that Clemson did not stumble during the year. That zero in the loss column will be the difference and get Clemson in even though they have not played a significant game all year long. No team that Clemson played this year will end up in the top 25 year end poll. No one is going to say that Clemson should not be in. They also should agree that Clemson will probably be the three seed. A very dangerous three seed.
Big Ten Conference Championship
Wisconsin started the game with a flurry. The Ohio State fans were going nuts. At half time Wisconsin had a 21 – 7 lead. It looked like once again the world was going to come to an end for Ohio State with an unexplainable performance. Ohio State has been kept out of the playoff two straight years due to a head scratching loss. Two years ago to Iowa and last year to Purdue. It was looking like it was going to happen again. At least this time it would be in the Big Ten conference championship game. Still it would be unclear how the playoff committee would view this. Then after half time. The actual Ohio State came out on the field. I am not sure who was on the field the first half but it was clear the team playing in the second half was the real Ohio State team. Wisconsin is a really good team. Ohio State showed that when they are on their game. Even if it is only for a half they can play with anyone. The question here is did that no show in the first half cost them the done seed in the playoff.
How Will the Selections Shake out
We know for sure that Ohio State and LSU are going to be one and two. Clemson is going to be three and I am guessing that Oklahoma is going to be the four. The importance here is who is going to have to play Clemson in the semi final game. I think that Ohio State and LSU can both beat Clemson but what will the toll of that game be. Since Clemson has not played a difficult schedule we really do not know how good they are. They might be really good and we just don’t know it yet. Oklahoma is not going to be a push over either. They are going to be able to put up some points no matter who they play. The committee is going to seed it hoping for an LSU Vs Ohio State championship game. We could get fooled and end up with Clemson Vs Oklahoma
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