The first round of the college football playoffs came out this Tuesday and there are plenty of reactions to go across the college football world. The committee took an immense amount of heat for placing BYU as the #13 team in the country. Everyone was shocked to see this team this far down the ladder after dominated every team that they had on the schedule. Although is there an argument for every single team in front of them. We are going to react to the biggest surprises from this ranking starting with the BYU Cougars.
BYU Cougars
Before we go into the numbers for the BYU team let’s look at the committee. The CFP committee has been known to use numbers in their rankings and even though people thought that it might change this year. It clearly did not. The Cougars had played a good season so far bringing along a 9-0 record. Now that may seem great but they haven’t played a single Power 5 opponent in those games. Then there are the teams they have played, only 3 of them are above. .500. Two of those teams are from C-USA including UTSA and LA Tech. The other team would be the Boise State Broncos who are 5-1 and somewhat respectable in the Mountain West. This game was also played when BYU had a lot of players out. When you really look at this BYU schedule a lot of them in front of them could have had the same schedule. They passed the eye test by winning by large margins, but that simply isn’t enough.
So what is next for this BYU team? They have enough opportunities to boost their schedule enough for a college football playoff chance. The Pac 12 has changed their policy to be able to add more games by adding nonconference games. Washington had a chance to be on the schedule, but there have been reports of BYU avoiding that. While this seems unlikely, BYU really needs another game on their schedule, I don’t think they can jump anyone with what they have right now.
Northwestern Wildcats
The Wildcats move to number 8 after knocking out Wisconsin in a defensive battle. This team has plenty of defense and should be able to run the table to play Ohio State. The only question remaining on their schedule is if they can avoid COVID-19 and avoid. being upset. In this Big 10, I would not be surprised to see anyone knock off anyone. Michigan State will probably be the toughest opponent left on the schedule. They get past the Spartans and it is smooth sailing from there. I don’t think there is any chance from OU or Cincinnati to knock these guys after losing to OSU.
Oklahoma Sooners
When I watched the rankings I thought this was one of the biggest surprises I saw Oklahoma jumped both BYU and Oregon who are both undefeated. They also jumped Iowa State who they lost to previously in the season. Once again leaving the Big 12 in the mix in this last stretch of the season. So can Oklahoma make the CFP in 2020? For any of that to happen Oklahoma will need to play the dominating football they have played the past few weeks. Then they still have a lot in front of them. They need losses from Northwestern, Texas A&M, Cincinnati, and some chaos in the ACC. For OU the biggest problem seems to be Cincinnati and Northwestern. Both of them have favorable schedules and could be the only problem facing OU in this final stretch. The Sooners will once again have a chance come December with only a few things in front of them when we expected a lot more. Maybe my Big 12 playoff article might appear to come true.
Top picture by USA Today