Monday, November 13, 2006

The Accidental Playoff

The BCS has managed to create an accidental playoff with it’s latest rankings.

OK, so it isn’t really a playoff. But the current rankings do contain the unique circumstances of all of the top 8 teams actually playing one of the other top 8 teams. First, the current rankings –

1 Ohio State
2 Michigan
3 USC
4 Florida
5 Notre Dame
6 Rutgers
7 Arkansas
8 West Virginia

Then, the match-ups –

November 18
Ohio State v. Michigan

November 25
Notre Dame v. USC

December 2

Rutgers v. West Virginia
Florida v. Arkansas (barring a major upset)

Obviously, it isn’t all this simple, as several teams listed still have to play quality and/or rivalry opponents. But what is certain is this – four of these top eight are going to lose at least one more game, which will virtually eliminate them from contention (except, perhaps, in the Ohio State – Michigan case).

So, when you look at the top 8 in the BCS now, take it with that proverbial grain of salt. It is going to look vastly different just three weeks.

1 comment:

Henry Louis Gomez said...

The problem of course is that USC is ahead of Florida. If they win out they will make it to the BCS championship game. Now if Notre Dame beats them, they will leapfrog Florida and play in the BCS championship game. So despite all the help UF has gotten, we still need for USC to stumble once and then beat Notre Dame. And perhaps West Virgina to beat Rutgers.