2014: Playoff Announcement and Bowl Game Open Thread

There you have it. The regular season concluded last night with Ohio State demolishing Wisconsin 59-0 in the Big Ten Championship Game. And as bad as that final score is, the Badgers weren’t the only team to get embarrassed in a championship game. Alabama defeated Missouri 42-13, Oregon crushed Arizona 51-13 and NIU rolled Bowling Green 51-17 (y’know, if you care about the MAC). The only question now is: Who is the four seed? Alabama, Oregon and Florida State are locks as they’re either conference champions or undefeated. The three other contenders are:

• Ohio State, Big Ten Champion whose only loss came to Virginia Tech immediately following the loss of Braxton Miller.
• Baylor, Big 12 co-champion who defeated ranked teams in TCU, Oklahoma (who isn’t that good) and Kansas State. Baylor played absolutely no one in their non-conference schedule and lost to West Virginia.
• TCU, Big 12 co-champion who defeated ranked teams in OU, Oklahoma State, West Virginia and Kansas State. Only loss was to Baylor. Also had an impressive non-conference win over Minnesota.

So who is the winner? I think if Baylor or TCU get in there’s going to be absolute chaos and the world will immediately demand an eight-team playoff. Actually, there’s going to be an eight-team playoff soon anyway. Why not just leave them out and give it to Ohio State? Yeah, sounds simple minded and good to me.

The College Football Playoff Selection Committee will announce the top four teams at 11:30AM on ESPN. As soon as they are announced they will be reflected in the below table. Teams that have officially been announced in a bowl game will be BOLDED.

Enjoy the chaos.

Bowl Projections/Announcements:

Note: OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS ARE TEAMS IN BOLD