New Year's Six projections - week 10

The first CFP rankings of the year have just been released, and let's make some projections for the New Year's Six bowls.

The Peach and Fiesta Bowls are the semi-finals this season, which means that there is only room for one at-large team, who will play the G5 representative in the Cotton Bowl.  This also means that none of the champs who aren't in the CFP will be getting displaced from their regular landing spot.

Obviously, the final set of bowls will look nothing like this, as this weekend's slate featuring 4 8-0 teams playing each other will likely lead to some major shifts in the rankings.

Coming up with the top four teams is difficult at the moment.  The current top 5 contains teams that will play each other soon.

The top four I will project at this point are Ohio State, Clemson, Oregon, and the LSU/Alabama winner.  This is the same I projected with the AP rankings last week.  It's a drastic change from the CFP rankings, but the rankings have a top four where two of the teams are guaranteed a loss before the season is out.

Peach:  LSU/Alabama winner (#2/3) vs. Clemson (#5)
Fiesta:  Ohio State (#1) vs. Oregon (#7)

The only bowl not needing a replacement for their champ is the Sugar for the Big 12.

Sugar:  LSU/Alabama loser (#2/3) vs. Oklahoma (#9, Big 12 projected champ)
Rose:  Penn State (#4, Big Ten replacement) vs. Utah (#8, Pac-12 replacement)
Orange:  Wake Forest (#19, ACC replacement) vs. Georgia (#6, highest ranked non-champ/non-replacement out of SEC/Big Ten/ND)
Cotton:  Cincinnati (#20, G5) vs. Florida (#10, highest ranked team not already placed)

These projections are very volatile, and I don't expect a lot of them to hold up as teams knock each other down the rankings.

Week 10 wrap up

We're hitting the part of the season where the extra week is really showing.  So many scenarios are one game away from a team clinching or being eliminated, only to be followed up by a bye week or non-conference game.

We have finally remembered about the Championship of Life.

Since Alabama grabbed the Championship of Life at the end of the 2017 season, they sort of sucked the fun out of it.  We actually forgot about it around here, even after Clemson wrestled it away from them in the best national title game of the CFP era.

But now, it's been updated up to this week's coming game.  Click on the link below to see how the Championship of Life has progressed!

http://cfarena.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-championship-of-life.html

early New Year's Six projections

We're still another week away from the committee starting their rankings, but seeing as how I've been easing into football season this year, I thought I'd create a refresher as to what we're looking at for the New Year's Six this year.

The Peach and Fiesta Bowls are the semi-finals this season, which means that there is only room for one at-large team, who will play the G5 representative in the Cotton Bowl.  This also means that none of the champs who aren't in the CFP will be getting displaced from their regular landing spot.

I'm using the latest AP Poll for the rankings and projections.

Of course, as I do this, we have a historic weekend coming up on November 9.  There are 2 games featuring 8-0 teams playing each other (all four teams have a bye this coming weekend).  That means there is a lot of wiggle room in the projections.

Coming up with the top four teams is difficult at the moment.  The current top 5 contains teams that will play each other soon.

The top four I will project at this point are Ohio State, Clemson, Oregon, and the LSU/Alabama winner.

Peach:  Clemson (#4) vs. LSU/Alabama winner (#1/2)
Fiesta:  Ohio State (#3) vs. Oregon (#7)

The only bowl not needing a replacement for their champ is the Sugar for the Big 12.

Sugar:  LSU/Alabama loser (#1/2) vs. Oklahoma (#10)
Rose:  Penn State (#5, Big Ten replacement) vs. Utah (#9, Pac-12 replacement)
Orange:  Wake Forest (#23, ACC replacement) vs. Florida (#6, highest ranked non-champ/non-replacement out of SEC/Big Ten/ND)
Cotton:  SMU (#15, G5) vs. Georgia (#8, highest ranked team not already placed)

These projections are very volatile, and I don't expect a lot of them to hold up as teams knock each other down the rankings. 

Week 9 wrap up

I admit, I didn't watch much this weekend.  With a VT bye week and the last weekend before Halloween, I gotta focus on family stuff.  But man, did the ACC not disappoint.

We have reached the point of the season when the magic number is back.

Week 8 wrap up

The NCAA adopted a new overtime rule this year.  Starting with the 5th OT, teams alternate 2 point attempts.  The first game to utilize this new rule was played in Lane Stadium on October 19, 2019, when the Virginia Tech Hokies beat the cheating Tarheels of North Carolina 43-41 in 6 OTs.

Oh, and the ACC Coastal went into full chaos mode.  And, we're getting close to eliminations.

The Coastal did it again!

Eight weeks might be a record for this division!

2019 Season: Halftime Report

Like Chip, I've spent some time away from this place over the past several months. Not as "busy" as Chip per se, but just not around the blog-o-sphere.

But in any case, it's great to be back - and just in time to share some thoughts on the first half of the 2019 season.

Week 7 wrap up

Getting back into the football groove.  Had some crazy games this weekend, causing some significant shake ups in the conference races.

Week 6 wrap up

We've missed a few weeks, but fortunately those weeks were light on conference action.  Well, compared to late October.  The ACC front loaded a bit to push their new network.

As always in the conference races, we're only counting conference games.