College Football Tournament Week 12 - The Cupcakery

Week 11 Recap

There was some opportunity for a shake-up in a few spots, but ultimately Gundy’s gamble 2-point play was not as successful as Holgorsen’s was last week and the Cowboys fell by a point in Bedlam.

Way back on Friday night, the Bulldogs could not escape the Smurf Turf as Boise eliminated Fresno State, leaving Utah State as the only remaining Mountain West contender. San Diego State’s shocking loss to UNLV keeps Fresno atop their division, but with SDSU-Fresno & Boise-Utah State still on the regular-season schedule, the MWC is still very much up for grabs.

Basketball season has officially begun in Lexington, as Kentucky’s Cinderella football season struck midnight in Knoxville and Mark Stoops has once again turned into a pumpkin.

Meanwhile, all of the Top Contenders won yet again, further separating the haves from the have-nots and setting up a brutal sprint to the finish. Coaches and ADs need to start lobbying the Committee now.

Week 12

There are exciting weeks of college football ahead. This is not one of them. This is the week that the SEC claims it cannot play a 9^th conference game because they need a de-facto bye week headed into rivalry games have critical match ups scheduled with heavyweights like Liberty, UMass, Rice, Citadel, and Idaho. The SEC: It Just Means More Cupcakes. Alabama could run out its practice squad and win by 50 points this week. To be fair, it isn’t much better outside of the SEC, as only 4 of the remaining teams are favored by under 17 points. Syracuse and Arizona have been frisky lately, but do they really have a shot against the Fighting Irish (in Yankee Stadium, for some reason) or Wazzu? Though the weather in Stillwater doesn’t call for any snowflakes to frighten Mike Gundy on Saturday, the schedule does call for a blizzard of points from Will Grier and crew. Cincinnati has had a strong season since being eliminated at Temple in OT, but can the Bearcats really be the team to hand UCF its first loss in 23 months? We could be in store for an elimination-free slate, do you think any teams will fall out of the Top 12 this week?

With just 12 teams alive we can now properly fill out the New Year’s 6 bowls, perhaps looking something like this:

This particular outlook assumes a Michigan victory over Ohio State and WVU-OU to split their upcoming head-to-head match ups (assuming they both get to the Big XII championship). If OU/WVU and Michigan/tOSU win out, the résumé comparison between the B1G Champion and the Big XII Champion will be a tough one for the Committee. We’ll dig into it if we reach that point. There is still quite a lot to play out that will either simplify or further muddy this picture, though it is unlikely we get much clarity this week.