It has been a quick bowl pool season. Ohio State provided our upset of the season last night with a thrashing of Clemson - that's a shame. This sets up a final game of Alabama versus Ohio State. If you have read this blog you know what an anti-playoff person the author is. Here are some stats for you about the playoff:
We have had the playoff for seven years since the 2014-15 season. As it is a four team playoff there have been 28 slots available. Only 11 programs have filled those slots. No team outside the power five conferences despite plenty of candidates (take Cincinnati this year) has filled a spot. Alabama and Clemson have been in six of the seven years. Ohio State and Oklahoma have appeared four times. All seven years, at least one team who made the playoff the previous year has appeared again. Six of the seven years at least two teams have made the playoff who made the playoff the previous year. One year, three of the teams in the playoff had appeared in the previous year's playoff. This system is giving the same programs extra visibility, increasing their recruiting footprint and therefore turning college football into a pyramid scheme. Given what we know about recruiting so far, would you not expect Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma to make it in again next year?
One of the arguments made by pro-playoff, anti-bowl advocates is that the student athletes are not motivated to play unless there is something to play for. They always use blowouts in the other bowls to make their point, especially when a big name like Georgia has some athletes opt out and lose as a favorite. But let's look at actual results. There have been 14 semi-finals played since the playoff began. Ten of those fourteen have been blowouts (the winning team has won by two or more touchdowns). Only one of those games has gone into overtime. This blowout pattern extended to this year where both games were blowouts. Overall, the average margin of victory in a playoff semi-final is 21 points or 3 touchdowns. In the six Championship games, three have been blowouts. Currently, Alabama is more than a touchdown favorite. If you look at scores of other seasons of bowls, I would argue the results are no worse, and actually a little better. We have had three really tight games in our pool this year among the minor bowls: the Peach, the Liberty, and the Cheez-It. We have had four blowouts: the Alamo, the Duke's Mayo, the Cotton and the Citrus. We have four games left. Let's hope they provide better entertainment than yesterday's semi-finals.
Today's games: The Gator Bowl - Kentucky versus North Carolina State. Real important to Candace's chances of repeating. She cannot have Kentucky win or Chris eliminates her.
The Outback Bowl - Indiana versus Ole Miss. Matthew needs to keep an eye on this game. Unusually, most of us picked against the SEC team here.
The Fiesta Bowl - Iowa State versus Oregon. The Truck Stop Big 12 versus the Conference of Champions PAC 12 (Bill Walton Reference for those in the know)
The Orange Bowl - North Carolina versus Texas A&M. This will be emotional for us. Despite who we picked, I know we will all be rooting for the team in Carolina blue.
Have a great day. Watch the Orange Bowl if nothing else and drink a toast as you watch to the man who created this fun. I'll have more to write at a later time.
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