Chaos reigned yet again this week, as three major players in the playoff hunt, Clemson, Washington, and Washington State all went down in flames to far inferior programs. Of course, when all you have is a four team make-believe playoff, these things tend to happen, and they get an inflated value as to how important they are or not. In pre-BCS times, these losses at this point would have loomed large, but not nearly as large as they are now. If there were a 24 or 28 team playoff (FCS, D2 models) these losses would mean little, as long as these three teams managed to minimally finish in the top two or three in their conference.
Here are my seven biggest take aways from week 7 of the 2017 college football season:
Point One: We need to go all in on bowls, or all in on playoffs, but we can't have both.
I understand that we, as a society, believe that we are in a "having our cake and eating it to" mindset, but in college football, it simply does not work that way. This new playoff has been terrible for college football, and the clinging bowl system has not been helped, and has done nothing to help themselves. I keep going back to the money issue, but the simple matter is that the TV revenue that we see now will be drying up in a short manner of time. Once that happens, we will not be able to finance both a crumbling, decaying, and corrupt bowl system, and a floundering system that is absolutely the least conclusive answer to the BCS that could possibly have been found. We need the full playoff treatment, or a full bowl system, but they cannot coexist.
Point Two: Washington and Washington State killed the PAC-12, and Khalil Tate will kill it further.
The Cougars started the West Coast's forgotten power leagues playoff chances first, and then Washington buried it even further. With those two losses, the PAC-12. just like that, found themselves buried in back room playoff talk, and not in a good way. The league already was playing against a stacked deck, like it does every season, but much of that can be laid at the feet of their own terrible deals with TV networks. What will kill it even further, is the play of Khalil Tate, the breakout Arizona star QB, who has made both UCLA and Colorado look like fools. He still has the opportunity to damage Washington State and USC even further coming up.
Point Three: Bill Moos hired as Washington State AD, will Mike Leach follow?
Bill Moos was in a war of wills with the Washington State administration, and it blew up when he made himself available to Nebraska in the 11th hour last weekend. With Mike Riley being on his way out at Nebraska, who will Moos hire? Conventional wisdom says that his first target would be the miracle hire he made at Washington State. Mike Leach has completely turned Washington State around, and now the Cougars administration is trying like hell to make sure that they can keep Leach in Pullman. Leach would be the perfect fit at Nebraska, and would make them a major player in the Big 10 West. Leach met with the school president on Monday, and states that he isn't going anywhere, but that does not mean that Moos won't try, and try hard, to lure him.
Point Four: If NC State beats Clemson, they have a fairly clear path to a division title in ACC.
Back during fall camp, I stated that NC State was good enough to win the Coastal Division, but would possibly finish fourth in the Atlantic. I was right about them as a division winner. Not only could they probably win the Coastal, but they may very well win the Coastal, which they are in control of now. The Wolfpack has already beaten Florida State and Louisville, and if they beat Clemson, all that stands in their way would be Boston College, North Carolina, and North Carolina. That is what I call the path of least resistance to a conference title shot.
Point Five: JT Barrett is having a Heisman season, and nobody wants to talk about it.
After I mentioned it, a few select people started mentioning Barrett as a candidate for the Heisman, but he was never mentioned at all before this week. He simply has a 21:1 TD to INT ratio on the season, and has rushed for five more scores. He is second on the Buckeyes team in rushing on the season behind JK Dobbins. Still, nobody is giving him serious consideration for the Heisman. During the preseason, he was highly disrespected based on a down year last season, and it appears that that has continued into the season, based on that popularity contest aspect of the award.
Point Six: UCF has taken the lead in the Group of Five NY6 Bowl race.
UCF has moved ahead in the race, despite still having a date with unbeaten USF coming up later in the season. The Knights have been amazingly dominant this season, averaging over 50 points per game, and beating everyone they have played by an average of over 30 points per game. With San Diego State losing to Boise State this week, the race is simply down to USF and UCF for now. Unless the Knights trip up on the way, they are clearly in the NY6 lineup.
Point Seven: 13 teams have qualified for bowls, 21 more can qualify this weekend.
We are at the point in the season where we can start counting down bowl bids. With a potential of having 34 teams eligible for bowl bids after this weekend, that is already almost as many teams as were eligible 30 years ago for the entire bowl season. Let that sink in for a moment before I continue my "there are too many damned bowl games" in three...two...one...
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