Roller Coaster ride continues in college football

It was a week full of upsets. Last week, we saw several top-ranked Division I college football programs fall. A quick recap of the upsets:

Arizona beat No. 2 Oregon, 31-24

No. 11 Ole Miss beat No. 3 Alabama, 23-17

No. 25 TCU beat No. 4 Oklahoma, 37-33

No. 12 Mississippi State beat No. 6 Texas A&M, 48-31

Utah beat No. 8 UCLA, 30-28

Although still early in the season, these upsets have shaken up the playoff picture. This year, college football is implementing their first playoff system for Division I teams. In this system, the top four teams in Div. 1 are selected by a panel of twelve experts based on strength of schedule, season results, championships won and other factors.

The top-ranked team will take on the fourth-ranked team in one semifinal game while the second seed takes number three. This year, the two semifinal games will be the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. The semifinal games run on a three-year cycle of alternating sites: Rose Bowl/Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl/Cotton Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl/Peach Bowl.

The winners of the semifinal games advance to the championship game in Arlington, Texas, held Jan. 12 in the 80,000-capacity AT&T Stadium (home of the Dallas Cowboys).

There were two programs that made it out alive in the crazy week that was college football: the No. 1 ranked Florida State Seminoles and the then fifth-ranked Auburn Tigers, who cruised by the 15th-ranked LSU Tigers (41-7).

The two programs faced off in last year’s BCS National Championship game; the Seminoles came out victorious, 34-31.

Is this Déjà vu? Will we see the two fighting again for a championship in January? This is very possible, but as we saw last week no team’s unbeaten record is safe. If both Florida State and Auburn win out, they will make it to the playoff and have a chance at a rematch in the championship game.

Besides a tough game against the sixth-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Florida State won’t face too challenging a schedule for the rest of the season. Auburn, on the other hand, has to face the likes of Mississippi State (tied for No. 3 in this week’s Associated Press poll), Ole Miss (also No. 3), Texas A&M (No. 14), Georgia (No. 13), Alabama (No. 7), and if they are able to win all these games, they must also play in the SEC Championship game (not an easy task).

It’s far too early to pinpoint four programs that will make it to the playoff and that’s the exciting thing. There are over a dozen teams who have a shot at the playoff.

Even the Oregon Ducks, yes the Ducks, have a chance of winning the championship. The Arizona game was a heartbreaker, but there is still hope. If Oregon is able to win out and take home the Pac-12 Championship – assuming opponents such as UCLA, Stanford and Arizona, and maybe USC, stay high in the AP rankings – it is right back in the conversation of a top-four program.

This is a roller coaster of a season. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Advocate Staff