College pigskin recap, week 8

#1 Texas lost to #5 Georgia. It was 23-0 at halftime. Oregon advances to #1. Oregon could easily remain undefeated and earn the top seed in the playoffs.

#7 Alabama lost to #11 Tennessee. Alabama has not had two losses before November since the Civil War, when they unexpectedly dropped one to the 20th Maine on Little Round Top. (OK, really since 2007.) Alabama fell out of the top 12. (Why 12? That’s the new magic number for the playoff system.)

These major teams remained undefeated: BYU, Miami, Iowa State, Indiana, Pitt, Army and Navy. (And Liberty, if you consider them a major team.)

• Both Army and Navy will be tested in upcoming weeks by games against Notre Dame. It’s difficult to imagine that the service academies will ever become truly great again because of the transfer portal.  Players with NFL potential can leave to go to football factory schools and drop the service requirement, while no great potential NFL stars are longing to transfer to West Point, even if the Point would accept them, which they probably would not.
• You might remember that Liberty was also undefeated last year, which earned them a bowl bid against Oregon, where they were demolished.
• Indiana? WTF? Unlikely though it may seem, they just beat Nebraska 56-7, and Nebraska is not a bad team at all (5-2 including that loss). Indiana is now #13 in the polls and #17 in the computer ratings.

Shakespearian tragic hero, with a significant downfall from a lofty place: FSU, 13-0 in the regular season last year, 1-6 so far this year. It’s not going to get easier. Two of their next three opponents are Miami and Notre Dame.

Kent State watch: they dropped their 16th in a row, 27-6. My undergrad alma mater, Fordham, is arguably worse than Kent State. Earlier this year, Fordham (0-7) lost to Bowling Green 17-41, while Kent State just lost 6-27 to the same opponent. That comparison suggests it’s a coin flip between the two, but I’d bet on Kent State if they met. Fordham is an FCS school and plays against schools named after toothpastes, while Kent State is in the FBS subdivision with the big kids. That means that Kent State still may be the worst FBS team. I say “may” because Kennesaw State (0-6) is approximately as weak.

One takeaway from this week is that we will have to accept that some future national champions may have multiple losses during the regular season, ala Div 1 basketball.

Reasons:

1. The SEC is so strong that even its very best teams may lose a couple. As of today, there are no undefeated teams in the SEC, although two are undefeated in conference play. Mighty Alabama already has two losses. Oklahoma already has three.

2. Since twelve teams make the playoffs in the new system, I can easily imagine an SEC team making it with three losses. Once a three-loss team gets in, anything can happen, based on the “any given Saturday” axiom. (AKA the Northern Illinois rule.)

Another takeaway is that some excellent teams in the SEC may not reach bowl eligibility. For example, Auburn would have to win four of its last five, and that’s … well … highly unlikely. The Big Ten is approaching that level, but not quite there. The Big Ten teams can still run up good records because the conference is top-heavy – not as strong at the bottom as the SEC. Wisconsin, which is probably no better than Auburn, can achieve bowl eligibility based on non-conference games and the weak Big Ten teams. They’ve already beaten Purdue, Northwestern and Rutgers.

• Scoreboard
• New rankings. Oregon is almost a unanimous #1, except for two votes for Georgia. BYU replaced Alabama in the top twelve. (There’s a sentence probably never written before.) Liberty finished #30 in both polls!
• New computer ratings. The computer calculates that Ohio State, Georgia and Texas are in a virtual tie for the top spot. Oregon is fourth, even though they have already defeated Ohio State.