Eight games, one close, and seven unremarkable games. Welcome to the college football playoff, where the games aren’t great and everyone has something to complain about. Many people are upset at which teams got in, analysts who contradict themselves, and the general “meh-ness,” of most games.
However, the college football playoff’s positives aren’t being discussed. Negativity has taken hold of many parts of our life and culture. However, sports should be celebrated and there have been awesome performances and great moments.
Great Data Collection for Next Year’s College Football Playoff
No one said that the college football playoff would be perfect. All that was promised was more games, money, and more teams getting a chance.
As college football fans, we learned valuable lessons from the first expanded college football playoff. The first lesson is how hard it is to win a big road game. All four teams who hosted playoff games, won by a combined 77 points. It’s hard to win on the road, especially when crowds are all hyped up on Mountain Dew.
There’s no shame in losing on the road in a tough environment, especially when the environments were awesome spectacles. And the crowd was hyped off Mountain Dew.
The second lesson is that these long layoffs hurt the rhythm and timing of teams that got a bye. The teams that received byes combined for 21 points. Four teams, 21 points. The byes affected the team’s sharpness negatively. Another factor worth considering is that each team had equal time to prepare for each other. There’s no prep advantage for the top-four seeds in the college football playoff because they don’t know the outcome of the first-round games.
Penn State Has Arrived
After years of “can’t win the big game,” Penn State has won two! James Franklin has finally reached a final four for the first time at Penn State. He’s been there for 11 years.
Penn State’s defensive line is game-wreckers, and their superb tight end, Tyler Warren, IS their aerial attack. Despite being 1.5-point underdogs, Penn State doesn’t feel like one against Notre Dame.
Despite close losses to Michigan and Ohio State year over year, Penn State finally reached a place where its program belongs. Thanks to the college football playoff, it will face Notre Dame with a shot at the National Championship.
Marcus Freeman Got the Best Win
Before Thursday night’s matchup, Notre Dame was underdogs to Georgia, a team that had lost four games in the last four seasons.
Notre Dame is in the final four of the college football playoff thanks to a 23-10 win over Georgia. They are doing it with defense and special teams. A recipe that has worked in football for decades. The Fighting Irish just make plays. A kick-off return for a touchdown to start the second half and two force fumbles in the first half made up for a minus 51 total yard difference.
Notre Dame and Marcus Freeman have completely shifted the perception of the program. Under former coach, Brian Kelly, it was thought that Notre Dame couldn’t win the “big game,”. Consistent losses to better teams proved this narrative under Kelly.
However, in the span of three seasons, Notre Dame is proving they belong where they should be: among the elite programs in college football.
Cam Skattebo: People’s Champ
Cam Skattebo’s Fiesta Bowl performance won’t be forgotten anytime soon. More than any other player so far in the college football playoff, Skattebo showed the vision of what people had in mind for this playoff.
Fans wanted teams that weren’t among the elite to get a shot, just a shot, to win a National Championship. Cincinnati had to play two great seasons, just to be able to get into the four-team college football playoff.
Skattebo accounted for almost 250 yards by himself. Arizona State almost pulled off an incredible upset over Texas. He threw for one touchdown and ran for two others. He raised his NFL stock and profile among the common fans.
Despite many blowouts, Arizona State proved that smaller programs can compete with the so-called “big boys”.
Indiana Gained a Fan: Me
Pre-college football playoff, I was less than enthusiastic about Indiana being in the playoff. I thought they had an easy schedule and the loss to Ohio State proved they didn’t belong.
After the Notre Dame loss, I saw how much (online) hate their program, coach, and schedule received. Here are some facts. They lost by less to Notre Dame in South Bend than Georgia did on a neutral site. Indiana lost to Ohio State by less than Tennessee did in the horseshoe. Indiana beat Michigan at home. Ohio State lost to Michigan at home.
Indiana did deserve to be here, it was always going to be a tough task beating Notre Dame at home. Especially with all the Mountain Dew their fans drank before (probably).
Their quarterback, Kurtis Rourke, played the entire season with a torn ACL! Indiana may have their haters, but I’m not one of them.
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