Another week of wackiness is in the books in college football in a season where wackiness may not entirely live up to the chaotic state of the sport right now. There have been few seasons, outside of a season of the show "Lost", where there are far more questions than answers given, with more questions coming in by the train full every week. Here are my observations from another completely confusing week of the 2017 college football season...
Point One: Jim McElwain is fired at Florida, but Butch Jones hasn't been?
Seriously, one of the major confusing issues for me this fall has been the refusal to fire coaches who are obviously going to get fired anyway. I have said it time and again the last few weeks...this is not a rich candidate pool for replacing head coaches coming up, and if you are going to do it, you need to get an early jump on negotiations and prep work. Butch Jones is toast at Tennessee, and we all have known it almost since the season began, but Jim McElwain was fired first at Florida after it became painfully obvious that he was absolutely miserable in Gainesville, and may have even sabotaged himself in the process on purpose. It makes no sense that Jones wasn't shown the door after it became painfully obvious that he was never going to win, but McElwain was let go first. Don't get me wrong, as I would have fired McElwain for reasons other than what eventually went down as the official "mutual parting of the ways" story, but I probably would have canned Jones 2 weeks ago.
Point Two: Just because you are Florida, you are not guaranteed relevance.
Florida fans get this attitude thing about winning like it is a God given right at the school. It is not, and you don't have to go too far back in history to realize that. Much like Northwestern, Florida is a Johnny come lately to the larger college football landscape. Remember that Florida was barely relevant at all before Steve Spurrier landed there in 1989. Before he got there, and Urban Meyer took that foundation and rebuilt it from the Ron Zook damage, Florida was an annual also ran in the SEC standings, never having won a national title until 1996. Florida has won three titles since then, with Meyer adding two, but really, the Gators could very easily slip back into also ran status as a program, and currently, they are.
Point Three: We could have four teams from just two conferences in this joke of a playoff.
Much like the BCS, I absolutely detest the current playoff format in college football. With just four spots to represent 11 conferences, one group of independents, and 130 schools, it's laughable to call it a playoff. This year, it's even worse, as the current landscape of chaos has produced a situation where there will likely be multiple one loss teams available. Alabama is almost a lock, barring that they won't lose two, and even then, who knows? Washington, even by winning out, would leave for the PAC-12 getting left out of the playoff, as their schedule will be used against them, even though Alabama's is hardly better. It could be that regardless of conference title game results, and the committee sells a line of crap that they value conference title game results (news flash...they don't), that we could see a scenario where we get a Alabama/Georgia/Ohio State/Penn State kind of setting, which would start the controversy spilling all over again. Personally, if there were a 24-28 team playoff, like I think works best, I would have issue with this happening, but not with a ridiculous four team setting.
Point Four: The Big 12 Playoff Is Down to Four
The race for the Big 12 conference title is really all about getting the final two spots locked up, as those are the teams playing for the conference title. Iowa State...yes, Iowa State, is in prime position after having already beaten Oklahoma and TCU, and Oklahoma State is now in the 4th position. The Cowboys and Cyclones still have a date on the horizon, but neither can lose a game at this point. Oklahoma and TCU also still have a meeting on the horizon, but this conference race may yet be the most riveting in the nation. Even with that said, the eventual league champ could still get left outside of the current playoff format.
Point Five: Nobody wants anything to do with UCF.
With San Diego State going into a bit of a collapse lately, and with USF falling to Houston this week, UCF is now the dominant G5 team looking for a NY6 bowl bid. Nobody wants to play UCF right now, because, in all honesty, they could probably beat just about anyone. The Knights are averaging over 50 points per game, while allowing just over 19 per game. Scott Frost could very well be the leading candidate for the Nebraska job. If the Knights get into any number of NY6 games, they would be a legitimate favorite.
Point Six: Miami is the unbeaten team that nobody is talking about.
The Hurricanes have turned a major corner under Mark Richt in year one, and he is getting the most of the talent on hand. What could hold Miami back when it comes to playoff selection, if Miami wins out and takes the ACC, will be that one cancelled game in September, where the Canes did not go on the road to face Arkansas State due to a hurricane. It will be interesting to see where Miami will fall once the season concludes based on that one thing.
Point Seven: Will Lane Kiffin be a major candidate for a new job is FAU wins CUSA title?
Conventional wisdom would tell you that a conference title for Lane Kiffin in his first season at FAU would get him enough attention that he would become a premium candidate at any number of openings that may occur this off-season. What would be a problem is if he wins the CUSA title, how many schools would be willing to put up with his issues, or how many schools would pretend like he has none in order to just hire him? FAU is now in control of the East Division of CUSA, and short of a late collapse, he could be in a most interesting position come the end of November.
Coming up next...Conference Title Chase Projections
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