Posted on 10/10/2021 9:03:07 AM PDT by blam
Over the last two weeks, 10 teams ranked in the top 15 have lost, including seven in the top 10.
The last time the No. 1 team in the country lost to an unranked team was 2008.
The last time Alabama lost to an unranked team was 2007.
Texas A&M snapped both those streaks and brought true chaos to this college football season.
The Aggies dragged a two-game losing streak into Kyle Field on Saturday night, looking like one of the most disappointing teams in the country.
Then Texas A&M beat the mighty Crimson Tide, scoring almost as many points in a walk-off victory (41) as the Aggies had in three previous games (42) against Power Five opponents.
“We knew the last two weeks that we didn’t play to the best of our ability,” A&M defensive back Antonio Johnson told reporters. “We knew this week was an opportunity.”
A&M’s upset, the biggest victory of Jimbo Fisher’s tenure in College Station and the first over Nick Saban by one of his former assistants in 25 tries, capped yet another thrilling Saturday in a season that is trying hard to make up for the pandemic-plagued mess of 2020.
Saturday afternoon featured back-and-forth offensive outburst between ranked teams in the Big 12 (Oklahoma-Texas) and Southeastern Conference (Arkansas-Mississippi), and a top-five slugest (Penn State-Iowa) in the Big Ten.
At night, No. 14 Notre Dame and No. 9 Michigan needed late field goals to win from behind before Texas A&M topped them all with a stunning upset.
Over the last two weeks, 10 teams ranked in the top 15 have lost, including seven in the top 10.
A 2021 season that so many fans feared would be long march to the same old, same old, with super teams turning the College Football Playoff race....
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
Looks like the Sooners have an easy road the rest of the way, if they can get past KU.
I think OK State might have something to say about it.
Not sure if it enough to move Iowa up to #2 position.
Go Gators! Go Hawks!!
What a wild season so far.
I don’t see anyone getting through the B10 unbeaten this year.
Nebraska really should stick with Frost. They will really be gunning for Iowa (even more so than others) … that would ‘salvage’ a lot for the Huskers this season.
The Big Ten West is pretty weak, with Wisconsin being down this year. Penn State was by far the toughest test for Iowa before the Championship Game. The East is pretty stacked. And it looks like Ohio State has gotten over their problems.
Watching the end of the first quarter of Iowa home games restores my faith in humanity.
We need them more than ever.
This is a very fun time of the season each year for college football and 2021 offers a very interesting inflection point in the college football game of the future.
To friends, I have maintained that GA has all along been the best team in CFB ... clearly ... and yet now I want to SELL HIGH. Its two big early wins (@Clemson, Arkansas) do not with time seem as impressive and even this week’s Auburn win is against a team that just lost to an LSU team that is way underperforming. Looking forward, the next two games are vs SEC East teams FL and UK that are good enough to keep the SEC East from seeming an embarrassment.
GA now stands alone as the best in CFB, but on any given Saturday even the best can lose. There is a lot of regular season football left; it would be modestly generous to give GA a 65-35 chance of running that table. Then they meet AL in the SEC championship game.
What to say about Alabama!? I start every season betting against them, even as I am the first to admit that they nearly lap the rest of college football every year in talent, depth, coaching staff, resources and so much more. Every single aspect of their program is crazy optimized. Set aside Bama’s top 2-3 freshmen each year, and what remains is often still best in country in number and average 247 player rating. The first of two big problems is that everyone knows this and everyone thinks that Alabama just can’t lose. It’s not their fault, but they start every year with wildly exaggerated expectations.
Their second problem is that the Alabama optimization model has always had a ceiling; and the sport is changing so much so fast that it cannot last against rapidly ascendant innovations coming from every direction. Alabama needs its huge recruiting classes because so many of its stars leave early for the NFL. and there is only so much playing time for all of the recruits that come to Alabama. If there were a measure of average 247 rating of the players actually ON THE FIELD, Alabama would still be best in country, but I believe folks would be shocked at how much more level the playing field turns out to be in 2021 than, say, 2014; and not just in the top ranks but also for programs like Iowa, Oregon, A&M and Florida; and with schools like Kentucky rising to the point that on any given day they just might beat anyone.
The transfer protocol is revolutionary, I think beyond what anyone understands. And Ryan Day at Ohio State is crushing that model with no other program in even a distant second. Naysayers may think that this ends up being a wash, with every Joe Burrow (or Jameson Williams) transferring out cancelling a Justin Fields (or Trey Sermon) coming in. This thinking, though, is exactly backwards. That two-directional movement across the very best programs is exactly why a Quinn Ewers chooses Ohio State, not only to provide him with options but to ensure that the the AMAZING QB room in front of him will clear out to make room if he ends up as good as advertised. And to ensure that the WR room gives him the country’s best targets.
Add in other earthquake-like changes — conferences restructuring, NIL$ for players, recruitment of high school players from overseas, data analytics, better and better coaching, the likely expansion of the playoffs to 6, 8 or 12 teams, ... These are interesting times leading to a lot of disruption.
LSU and Clemson are in for a rough patch. Is their recent good fortune due to great and durable programs or a QB-related blip (JBurrow and TLawrence)? It really is looking like the latter for now.
The B1G is on the rise for the simple reason that they now dominate so many big markets — money talks! The fact that programs like Rutgers and Indiana no longer embarrass doesn’t make the news, but this matters. A rising B1G tide lifts all boats.
The PAC-12, Big12 and ACC are each a mess for different reasons. Conference realignments are not even at the half-way point; and for this reason, I believe, conference championships are not as important as they once were relative to the college football playoff. In five years, when super conferences settle in, the momentum will begin shifting back to conferences, again in substantial part because of $$$$.
Those are my thoughts. Not trying to provoke any arguments. And interested in what others think.
Check the scores. Tx. didn't win, they lost to the Sooners in a very high scoring Red River Shootout in the Cotton Bowl.
Auburn beat LSU.
The Wave is special. OSU does seem on track. Hope Iowa keeps it going.
“Auburn beat LSU.”
Yes, 24-19. My mistake. Thank you for the correction.
I worked out a system where all 130 teams are distributed across 11 divisions, each with six or seven teams in the “Power” Group of the division, along with another six or seven teams in the “Secondary” Group.
The “Power” Group as you can guess, consists mainly of the teams from the current Power Five conferences, and the “Secondary” Group composing the Non Power Five teams.
But here’s the twist, every year there is a game to determine which Secondary Team will play in the Power Group the next season. So hypothetically it gives every team a chance over time to compete at the highest level.
With 11 Divisions, the playoffs will then consists of First and Second place teams in the division, so that’s 22 teams.
All of the Division Winners get a First Round Bye. The Second place teams are ranked 1-11, based on position in the polls.
The 10-11 teams play each other in a Play-In....That gets it down to the 5 First Round Games, with the Five winners joining the 11 Division winners in the Round of 16, with games played at the home stadium of the higher-rated team. The sixteen teams are seeded purely by the polls, whether they finished first or second in their division no longer matters at this point.
Then the remaining eight teams will play New Years Day in the traditional Bowl Games (Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton/Fiesta)
Then the Semis and the Championship Game.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to read the transcript of the Saban speech to his team after the game.
“You are all grounded in your dorms with a 6PM curfew for the next week”.
The chance of Kentucky winning against GA is about the same as Biden not f’n up the country.
I think Kentucky can keep it close for 3 quarters, but I see Georgia pulling away in the fourth quarter.
It is Senator Walker to you.
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