Why This Game Matters: Week 2

Throughout the last two seasons, I highlighted some under-the-radar games each week. For 2015, I thought I’d change it up and consider what could be the highest of highs.




It’s easy to look back on a game after a few years and see the far-reaching impact it had on the sport. What’s not so easy is to imagine what kind of impact the game will have before it’s even played. Call this new weekly feature a “reverse Butterfly Effect” , if you will.


The game in question this week: Oregon at Michigan State.


The first Top-10 matchup of the 2015 season is not at a neutral site, but rather at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan. The Ducks of Oregon complete a home-and-home series that began last year with a 46-27 victory over MSU in Eugene. This time around, Mark Dantonio’s men in green are the favored team, with College Gameday in town and hopes for a very special season.


Why this game matters:

• The winner will have an immediate leg up on the College Football Playoff race.
• With Baylor, TCU, and Auburn playing lesser-esteemed opponents, it’s possible/likely that the winner of this game could move into the Top 4.

Why this game COULD matter:

• If the winner of this game fails to win its conference, while the loser of this game succeeds, would that conference championship trump the head-to-head victory come CFP time?
• If both teams win out after this game, resulting in a 13-0 team and a 12-1 team that are both conference champs, would the 12-1 team be able to secure a CFP berth over, say, a 1-loss Big 12 or ACC champ who didn’t “already have their chance”?
• Oregon is becoming further removed from Chip Kelly’s recruits being major players in this system. A win here would be huge for legitimizing Mark Helfich as a coach in his own right, while a loss (especially a convincing loss, like the one to Ohio State just 2 games ago) might call for some scratching heads.
• Michigan State already loves Mark Dantonio, who has proven that he can take out high-ranking teams like Stanford or Baylor. If MSU can win as a favored team, rather than just “sneaking up” on the opponent, that could become yet another step up for the Spartan program.
• This game could impact out-of-conference scheduling moving forward, particularly if the loser of this game can say in December “if only we hadn’t played Oregon/Michigan State”.
• Conversely, if the Strength of Schedule boost allows a non-champ to make the CFP, then TWO Power conference champions are guaranteed not to be in. Might this lead to even more grumbling about the system in only its second year?