Another year, another big matchup between LSU and Alabama.  They come into the game ranked #2 and #3 in the first Playoff rankings of the season.  This game probably means more for Alabama in terms of resume building.  LSU already has three big wins on the season over Texas, Florida, and Auburn.  Alabama doesn't have near the same resume.  There is always chatter about a one loss SEC team making the Playoff even when they don't win their division.  You could make that case for LSU this year, but it doesn't seem likely for Alabama this year.  But they do have the name Alabama so that always influences the committee.  #4 Penn State takes on an undefeated and 17th ranked Minnesota.  This is the best start Minnesota has gotten off to for a very long time.  If you listen to message boards and TV shows, nobody plays anybody good in college football.  Nobody.  But that actually might be the case with Minnesota so far.  Their best win is against Purdue.  They don't even crack the top 60 per S&P+.  Definitely time for them to step up and show they are for real, or justify the opinion everyone has that they are a product of a super soft schedule.  Read more...

Week 10 was very uneventful.  After 3 straight weeks of huge upsets, nothing of the sort happened this week.  Georgia was ranked lower than Florida, but they were favored in their victory over the Gators.  Memphis was ranked lower in their matchup against SMU, but they too were favored in the game.  Notre Dame needed a last minute rally to beat Virginia Tech, but that doesn't have any reverberations now that the Irish have already lost twice this year.  With Appalachian State and SMU losing, Memphis will most likely become the highest ranked Group of 5 team.  Or maybe Boise State will vault to the top of the Group of 5 pecking order.  That's probably the most intrigue that will come out of this weekend. Read more...

The season has now turned into the month of November.  It's the home stretch of the season, and to kick off that home stretch we have an....underwhelming slate of games.  The lack of intrigue is probably due to the fact that LSU, Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Penn State are all on bye, in addition to many other teams.  We do have the World's Largest Cocktail Party taking place this weekend.  The loser of this game probably is eliminated from Playoff contention as the winner will have essentially a 2-game lead for the SEC east because of the tie-breaker.  Georgia will still have Missouri, Auburn, and Texas A&M for conference games this season, while Florida will only have Vanderbilt and Missouri to go through to finish off conference season.  Read more...

Another week, another top 10 team falls as a massive favorite.  This time it was Oklahoma going down.  It looked like their defense went from horrible to respectable this season, but it reverted to its old ways against Kansas State this weekend.  The Wildcats ran all over the Sooners averaging 4.7 yards per attempt on the game.  Oklahoma was down 25 points in the 4th quarter before a furious comeback ran out of time.  So once again everyone says this is the death of another top team's Playoff chances.  It just seems we don't learn our lesson.  Every season at this time we say this about teams and project there will be about 8 unbeaten teams at the end of the year, but it never happens.  Maybe it will happen, but history has shown us it probably won't.  That means these 1-loss teams will be right back in the mix for a Playoff spot.  Although all of it still feels a bit futile because Clemson and Alabama are still unbeaten.  Until one of them is out of the Playoff, it won't ever truly feel like mass chaos is happening. Read more...

Shocker of the season so far.  Wisconsin goes down to lowly Illinois.  It looked like Wisconsin wasn't going to give up another point on the season, and yet they somehow lose as a 30.5 point favorite.  It looked like they were making a case as a strong Playoff team, but I guess they were looking ahead to next week when they take on Ohio State.  Ohio State might possibly be the best team in college football this year.  Their traditional stats and advanced stats are saying they are.  They are top 5 in both total offense and scoring offense.  They rank #2 in both total defense and scoring defense.  For you advanced stat nerds out there, they also rank #1 overall in S&P+.  They have the #1 defense and #5 offense in S&P+.  But this being college football, people will say they haven't played anybody.  Ok, that might me true up to this point, but they are destroying every team in their path so far. Read more...

Week 8 is the week for you if you really like the non-Power 5 teams.  There are some high quality matchups with the likes of Temple-SMU, Southern Miss-LA Tech, and Tulane-Memphis.  There are some division matchups that will carry some influence towards who plays in conference championship games like Arizona State-Utah, Oregon-Washington, and Michigan-Penn State.  It's hard to believe that every team is now into the second half of their schedules.  Why does the season have to go by so fast when the offseason takes forever?  Read more...

Just when you are least expecting it, college football comes out and throws in a little bit of chaos.  We knew it was going to be an entertaining weekend with Oklahoma-Texas, Florida-LSU, USC-Notre Dame, etc.  But the biggest result was South Carolina going on the road and upsetting the mighty Georgia Bulldogs.  The team that has been boasting it's the team that deserves to be in the Playoff even though they have 2 losses because they are one of the "best" teams in the country.  The team that has had Alabama on the ropes the past couple years only to choke each time.  This was merely supposed to be a speed bump on the way to another SEC east title.  I guess they weren't motivated to beat a team that was only 2-3 coming into the game.  Oh wait.  That's an SEC team's excuse when they lose a bowl game.  But in reality, it probably doesn't derail their Playoff chances all that much.  We have seen it before.  Ohio State losing to Virginia Tech.  Clemson losing to Pittsburgh.  Those teams overcame mind-boggling losses to still make the Playoff.  Before Clemson's undefeated season last year, there hasn't been an undefeated champion since the days of the BCS and 2013 Florida State.  It's just fun to have a little shake up at the top for a few weeks. Read more...

Week 7 has multiple ranked matchups and high profile games.  It seems like this is the first weekend we have had a loaded slate like this for 2019.  It usually doesn't take this long to have these matchups.  It probably has to do with each team having 2 byes this year.  After beating Auburn, Florida has to go on the road to take on the new-look offensive LSU Tigers.  Alabama goes on the road after an off week to take on Texas A&M.  Oklahoma and Texas renew their rivalry in the annual Red River Shootout.  Penn State travels to Iowa in what always seems to be a close, weird game.  USC travels to Notre Dame.  Baylor is ranked for the first time in awhile and has to take on Texas Tech who just knocked off ranked Oklahoma State.  You never know what is going to happen in the PAC 12 as both the Washington schools travel down to Arizona.  Should be a great week!  Read more...

The big game of the weekend pitted Auburn on the road against Florida.  In front of a raucous crowd at the Swamp, reminiscent of the title winning days, the Gators won a very sloppy game over the Tigers.  Now Florida gets to go play LSU.  The top of the SEC is very good this year with no breaks, even for Florida who plays in the weaker east division.  Alabama and Clemson were both on byes this week, so the week felt very uneventful.  The most exciting game of the weekend was probably the Tulsa-SMU tilt.  SMU overcame a 4th quarter, 21-point deficit to tie it in regulation and then win in triple overtime.  It was very exciting.  There are still lots of exciting games out there even if not every single game has national/Playoff implications.  For some people the only thing that matters is the Playoff.  That's just silly.  They are missing out on so much. Read more...

The calendar is turning to October and we are getting into the heart of the season.  There are a couple of big matchups this week, most notably Auburn on the road to take on Florida.  Will this be one of those seasons where Auburn goes on a run, or will their freshman quarterback have a rough game in a hostile environment?  And is this another season where we look up at the standings in November and somehow Iowa is still undefeated?  Or will Michigan finally start playing like the top 10 team everyone thought they would be in the preseason?  Lots of other conference matchups where we will see how teams really stack up.  The days of beating up on the FCS opponents are in the past now.  At least until November for the SEC.  Read more...

It almost happened.  There was almost the out-of-nowhere colossal upset that would have created some upheaval.  But it wasn't meant to be.  North Carolina came one horrible two point play call away from beating #1 Clemson.  If anything, this game shows that Clemson might be a little vulnerable and they have no margin of error.  The ACC is having such a down year, it seems like one loss would knock Clemson out of the Playoff picture no matter how much people think they are one of the "best" teams. Read more...

Week 5 is another week light on ranked matchups.  There is Virginia going on the road to Notre Dame.  This doesn't look nearly as daunting for Notre Dame as before based on last week's efforts.  Notre Dame went on the road and went toe-to-toe with Georgia while Virginia had to come from behind to beat Old Dominion.  USC travels to Washington as the Trojans re-enter the top 25 after beating Utah last week.  It's hard to see their young quarterback playing consistent in such a tough road environment.  Then the weekend is littered with many conference games which can provide some exciting games, because you never know what can happen when opponents know each other so well.  One can hope anyway.  Read more...

Week 4 has come to pass and that means many teams have already played a quarter of their schedules.  There is still one weekend left in September to go, but the national landscape is coming clearly into focus already.  It is another top heavy season with a pretty clear top tier of teams.  Out of the newest AP poll, 3 of the top 4 and 5 of the top 10 teams are from the SEC.  The Jacknife power rankings are starting to sort themselves out that way too.  They always look a little strange at the beginning of the year with the lopsided non-conference games.  But once things settle down they start to trend the same way as the voters.  Read more...

Week 4 finally has some big matchups.  This season has been thin on quality matchups so far.  Hopefully that's just an anomaly and not a sign of how teams are going to schedule going forward.   There are ranked matchups in the Big 10 and SEC this week, along with a big non-conference showdown between Notre Dame and Georgia.  Last year Georgia was mad that Notre Dame made the Playoff over them, despite the fact Notre Dame was undefeated and Georgia had 2 losses.  At some point wins have to mean something, and just because the eye test says you might be a better team doesn't mean you deserve to get in over a team 2 losses clear of you.  Then most people think that Notre Dame's performance in the Playoff meant they definitely didn't deserve it.  You might need to be reminded that Notre Dame kept the score closer against Clemson than Alabama.  The Irish only lost to them by 27, while Alabama lost to Clemson by 28.  No one was saying that result meant Alabama should have been left out of the Playoff.  Read more...

Week 3 was quite interesting.  While there were no matchups between ranked teams, plenty of results were intriguing.  It looks like the September national champion Maryland won't end up making the Playoff after all.  In typical fashion they have a terrible letdown after a blazing start to the season.  They are still sitting atop the Jacknife standings though.  That's how big their opening two weeks were.  In other weird result Kansas snapped a 48 road game losing streak to Power 5 opponents.  Maybe we should have known something was going to happen since it was Friday the 13th.  And it wasn't some lucky result either.  They pounded Boston College in that game.  In fact, it was a pretty good weekend for the Big XII outside of Texas Tech.  Kansas State went on the road and beat Mississippi State.  Oklahoma, Texas, TCU, West Virginia, and Oklahoma State all won big.  Iowa State lost to Iowa in a weird game, but that's always a weird game.  Read more...

It is now Week 3 in the season.  So far it is still a small sample size to figure out teams, but there are some trends that are potentially emerging.  The obvious is that Clemson is probably going to go unchallenged all season.  It looked like Texas A&M and Syracuse would be the toughest tests for the Tigers heading into the season.  They dominated A&M and now Syracuse doesn't look that great coming off a 43 point drubbing at the hands of Maryland.  The other trend is that the blue bloods continue to dominate the top of the rankings.  Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, and Ohio State sit at the top of the rankings.  It feels like it's that way every year.  Can someone crash the Playoff party this year?  Can there be some random upset that makes no sense and throws the season into chaos?  One can hope!  Read more...

It was a pretty typical early season week for college football.  Lots of blowouts against FCS teams and uneven non-conference games.  Texas A&M-Clemson was one of the big games going into the weekend.  But Clemson controlled that game from start to finish.  A&M saw how the Tigers dominated with the running game the week before, so they stacked the box and held Travis Etienne in check.  So that's fine because Clemson has a pretty good quarterback in Trevor Lawrence who carved up the defense.  Read more...

This week has a couple of marquee games as Texas A&M-Clemson and LSU-Texas face off.  These two games more than likely will have major implications in shaping the national title picture going forward.  Texas A&M only lost by 2 points at home to Clemson last year.  This time they have to go on the road, but what kind of tectonic shift in the national narrative will happen if Clemson goes down?  LSU fancies itself a contender and is aiming to knock Alabama off its perch in the SEC west.  Even if they lose this game, the SEC is still achievable.  If you win the SEC you are in the Playoff.  Read more...

An opening week that only had one game between ranked teams ended up providing plenty of intrigue.  There were many instances where it was shown age is but a number.  True freshman quarterbacks making 4th quarter comebacks, senior citizen coaches winning football games.  One of those true freshman quarterbacks is Bo Nix who engineered a second half comeback against Oregon that included a last second touchdown pass to win the game.  Read more...