College Football Takeover: Champ Week

Dude…

Championship week in college football has commenced and we had some crazy chaos and aftermath in the official rankings as we now are on the road to the playoffs and bowl season! A lot of conversation is amongst the CFB fanbase about where the committee placed them in the final rankings of the season and it’s always bound to happen in crazy weeks like this one. Follow this article along as we tell you what exactly went down if you missed anything from conference championship game takeaways to bowl placements for the upcoming stretch of postseason games!

How6rd’s Takeaways

Beginning of the end for the ACC: I said last week how bad the ACC was and it looks like the committee agreed placing an undefeated Power 5 school outside of the CFB Playoffs for the first time in it’s history. Going into the ACC Championship Florida State needed a dominant win against one of the “better” teams in the conference Louisville, and aside from the defense they damn near laid out a big egg and fumbled their hopes of getting into the playoffs even after a 13-0 season. Many talks have came out tarnishing the committee’s decision and saying that “undefeated is undefeated.” and it is unfortunate no matter how you look at their list of opponents and conference. The truth is it was either taking the SEC out entirely with Alabama looking from the outside even though they went undefeated in strong conference play and putting FSU in, or recognizing the Seminoles just never had that one win that made you say “this team can surely win a national championship” and the committee went with the latter. It is wild to think that the 2021 American Athletic had more pull than the 2023 ACC with Cincinnati making the playoffs back then with an undefeated regular season, but the truth is the committee put in the most proven four teams in the country for the playoffs this season. The good news (I guess) for FSU is this isn’t the end of the season, and if this team wants to prove their argument they need to show out in a huge Orange Bowl showdown against Georgia who truthfully can argue that they have a national championship winning team if it wasn’t for the SEC Title loss.

Bama wins SEC title after year hiatus: Now that we’ve covered Florida State’s unfortunate situation in the previous headline let’s talk about how Alabama rose to the fourth spot of the playoffs. Going into this game Alabama went undefeated in conference play and won all their games following the home loss to Texas back in early September, and after a close battle with Auburn they needed a quick turnaround and go against the best team in the country before the game commenced in the Georgia Bulldogs. Aside from both the false start that made what was a missed field goal and a disastrous trick play for Georgia the Bulldogs played some decent football in this game, especially the effort on defense doesn’t speak for itself statistically as the effort was clearly there. Unfortunately for the SEC East champions “decent” wasn’t good enough as quarterback Jalen Milroe and company were on a completely different level as the redshirt sophomore created time for himself inside of the pocket instead of running down the field which created some explosive passes for himself time after time. The defense shut down the Georgia run game forcing Carson Beck to try and get consistency out of his banged-up pass-catchers which was nearly impossible to happen against the squad that Alabama has. Although the receivers weren’t a huge help to Carson Beck in this one it’s difficult to beat a team that Alabama brought to the SEC Championship Game in this one as the Crimson Tide win the conference title once again after the Bulldogs claimed it last season. Nick Saban’s dynasty still is holding strong as he did enough after taking an early season loss to overcome the higher ranked Bulldogs and, although the Seminoles finished the season undefeated, have the resume in a way more challenging conference to win the race to the finish line and reach among the four most competitive teams scheduled to face #1 Michigan in the CFB Playoff semifinals.

New Year 6 Bowls filled with intense matchups and stories: With the aftermath of the chaos that came from choosing the four teams to make the playoffs there are a lot of solid groups that just didn’t make it into the limited four spots. While it’s made fanbases like Florida State, Georgia, Oregon, and Ohio State bummed out just missing out by a loss or two it has made the slate for New Year 6 Bowl games all the more interesting.

Starting off with the most anticipated bowl game in the Orange Bowl the undefeated Seminoles look to prove their worth, that regardless of the weak conference, they should’ve placed in the playoffs going against a team who just happened to fall short by three points in the SEC Championship for their only loss in Georgia. Next up we got the Cotton Bowl that includes the Mizzou Tigers exceeding everybody’s expectations of them becoming a very solid team in the SEC, as going against the Buckeyes who were at least pretty solid in every department outside of the quarterback position and fell short to Michigan as their only loss. Following that we have possibly my favorite bowl matchup this year as a neutral viewer with an Ole Miss squad who held their own on offense almost each game behind Lane Kiffin, and played some clutch defense when needed this year, facing a young and explosive Penn State team who look to have a big fire carried from this game going into what could be a huge season next fall for the Nittany Lions. Finally, we have the Oregon Ducks who lost to the Pac 12 champions twice and otherwise destroyed the rest of the teams on their schedule, as they will go against an undefeated Liberty squad who no one saw making it as the top Group of 5 team and they will have to shock the world trying to prove the “weak schedule” people wrong and beat a team that doesn’t lose easily if at all. This is the final year we only get 4 teams in the playoffs and although it’s not the same stakes for the rest of the New Year 6 Bowl games don’t be sleeping on any of these games as we can get some classic moments headed into what looks to be a very different season after these bowl games are said and done.

PC’S Takeaways

Washington Rolls to the Last Pac-12 Title: Although it was on a Friday night, the Pac-12 Championship game was incredible. The Huskies of Washington started off hot against the Oregon Ducks. Michael Penix Jr. was dicing up the Ducks secondary. Then, Bo Nix decided to demonstrate why he was a Heisman Trophy candidate. He answered with 21 points of his own to push the Ducks out to 24-20 lead. Dillon Johnson and the Washington offensive line took over. The game did end up being back and forth. When Washington found the endzone again and again, the Huskies had the lead 34-24. Bo Nix answered back and made it 34-31. The Washington Huskies pounded the ball to a few first downs to seal up their 13-0 season. Now, they find themselves in the College Football Playoff as the #2 seed against the Big 12 Champion, Texas.

Horns Up?: The Texas Longhorns manhandled the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Big 12 Championship. It wasn’t even close. Quinn Ewers threw for 4 touchdowns. Keilan Robinson and CJ Baxter combined for over 100 yards rushing and 3 total touchdowns. The defensive effort was also dominant, coming up with an interception. The score was 35-14 at halftime. You could just tell this Cowboys defense couldn’t keep up with the fire power of the Longhorn offense. The defense was always Oklahoma State’s strength. Once they became obsolete, the offense couldn’t score enough points to keep up. It ended up being a 49-21 beatdown for The Undertaker to give the Big 12 Championship Belt home to the Longhorns. Now, the Longhorns find themselves in the College Football Playoff playing against the high powered Huskies. It should be a great battle for any college football fan. Grab your popcorn and beer, it’s going to be a wild semifinal.