WINSTON-SALEM, NC – NOVEMBER 19: Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney leads the team onto the field prior to the game between the Clemson Tigers and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on November 19, 2016, at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem, NC. (Photo by Brian Utesch/Icon Sportswire)
NCAABy Kevin McGuire on

The college football season is nearly in the books, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop arguing about things

College football is somewhat unique in that it generates discussion few sports can rival. From weighing the value of conference championships and head-to-head matchups, no other sport comes close to serving up a dose of daily discussion the way college football does. So with the Playoff field now set, we can sit back and congratulate the selection committee on another cushy job while still poking it with a stick to point out the flaws. And that will always be fun.

Did the committee get it right?

I said going into last weekend that the committee would have a pretty easy time setting the field if Clemson won the ACC Championship Game (they did) and Washington won the Pac-12 Championship Game (they did), with Alabama assumed in regardless of the SEC Championship Game result (they won) and under the assumption Ohio State was locked in. With everything working out the way it did, I believe the committee got the Playoff field correct, including the seeding (although I might have gone Ohio State at No. 2, but the second and third seeds mean nothing anyway).

I do feel Penn State had a legitimate argument to make its case for inclusion in the Playoff, but the Nittany Lions needed a couple of different things to happen that never did. For starters, a loss by either Clemson or Washington would have gotten Penn State in as a second Big Ten team for the Playoff. With two losses compared to one loss by the ACC or Pac-12 champion, it would have taken a much more dominating performance against Wisconsin to wiggle in without some help from Colorado or Virginia Tech. Penn State is notorious for being a slow-starting team though, and they certainly showed that trend once again in the Big Ten championship game.

So with no “convincing win” in the Big Ten championship game, and with Washington blowing away Colorado and Clemson holding off Virginia Tech, there was nowhere for Penn State to go but to Pasadena to play in the Rose Bowl against USC. (Not a bad alternative, all things considered.)

I even liked the other New Year’s Six pairings. Western Michigan against Wisconsin will have some good buildup in the Midwest. Michigan and Florida State in the Orange Bowl is quite an attractive matchup across the board too. The Sugar Bowl gets an Oklahoma team that went on a roll after a tough September. The Sugar Bowl was contractually obligated to take Auburn (Sugar Bowl gets SEC champion or next highest-ranked SEC team not in the Playoff), which is why a team like Louisville or Colorado doesn’t get in the New Year’s Six. I would have been all in for an old Big 12 matchup between Colorado and Oklahoma, or a chance to see the Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson in the Sugar Bowl. Instead, we get an Auburn team with a mediocre offense and four losses. Can’t blame the committee for that one.

So here we are, for the third year in a row, left thinking the committee ended up getting it right in the end. And while the decision on the final four may have been pretty easy to make given the data samples to consider, we saw some fascinating debates and discussions pop up we have never seen before, like what to do with a team that certainly looks the part of a Playoff contender without the merit of a conference or division title. We saw that in the final weeks with not just Ohio State, but also Michigan. Some may call it a dangerous precedent, but I disagree.

The committee is put together for one job and one job only, and that is to put together the four best teams at the end of the season. Everything else is just fluff to keep us engaged in their conversation and process. The problem we are faced with confronting is that there is no outlined definition for what determines the “best” team. Without an actual outline or guidelines for determining the qualifications for Playoff consideration, we are left to argue amongst ourselves over what should qualify as the “best” at the end of the year.

Consider this for a moment. Penn State, Oklahoma, and USC each have not lost a game since the calendar flipped from September to October, yet neither of those three traditional college football powers are playing for a national championship. Sure, they all have multiple losses, but how amazing is it to see those three schools all go on a tear since Oct. 1 and not have a shot at a national title, even in a Playoff model? The lesson learned here is you can overcome one loss along the way, especially if it came in September, but digging a hole in multiple games before October is really tough to come back from.

The arguments will continue and each season will tell its own story. We learned something new this season, and odds are we will learn something new again next year as we enter Year 4 of the Playoff era.

Maybe next year we’ll see the committee do a little more squirming.

Best Non-New Years Six Bowl?

Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl: LSU vs. Louisville

There are some interesting matchups this bowl season, but one that really stands out is the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. This is largely due to the fact that we’ll have the Heisman Trophy winner (Lamar Jackson) attempting to strut his stuff one last time this season against a team that can play some hard-nosed defense. Also, Ed Orgeron versus Bobby Petrino is one of the more intriguing coaching matchups this bowl season has to offer.

I would have gone with the Las Vegas Bowl between San Diego State and Houston, but with Tom Herman packing up and leaving for Texas and taking a good handful of assistants with him, I can’t help but wonder if this one loses some steam. But Greg Ward Jr. and Donnell Pumphrey is good enough for me!

Make it 10-0

Nick Saban continues to dominate his former assistants. This 9-0 mark added one more notch in the win column this past weekend as Alabama took care of former Crimson Tide assistant Jim McElwain and his Florida program in the SEC championship. And don’t look now, but there is always the possibility that Lane Kiffin could be on the move soon enough.

John Carroll University slays another Division 3 giant

Not too long ago this fall, John Carroll University pulled a major stunner in the world of Division 3 football by topping Mount Union in a regular season game. It was the first time the Purple Raiders lost in 112 games dating back to 2005. Not content to slay one giant in Division 3, John Carroll has struck again, this time in the playoffs. John Carroll upset University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on the road in a quarterfinal round matchup in the NCAA Division 3 playoffs.

UW-Whitewater was the number one team in the country, but they took a 31-14 loss to see their season end much earlier than accustomed. UW-Whitewater or Mount Union have won the Division 3 title in each of the past 11 seasons, with all but two being won against the other D3 behemoth. This will be the second season in a row UW-Whitewater fails to reach the championship game. Could John Carroll be on their way?

If you were wondering, Mount Union is in the D3 playoffs as an at-large bid and is coming off a 70-45 win on the road against Alfred to advance to the semifinals against Mary Hardin-Baylor. John Carroll faces Wisconsin-Oshkosh in the other semifinal. Is a rematch in the works? We’ll find out this weekend.

Don’t forget about the Army-Navy Game!

I always like to remind people who say the college football regular season is over that we do, in fact, have one more game to play before going full bowl-mode. The Army-Navy Game will be played this Saturday in Baltimore, and it serves as the best way to transition from the regular season to the bowl season. That is because the Army-Navy Game has a special way of blending all that is good with college football into one. It is a perfect blend of heated rivalry game and the best atmosphere a bowl game could ever offer. From the pregame march by both service academies to the pomp and circumstance seldom seen for a regular season game, complete with parachute teams and multiple military flyovers to the orchestrated routines of the “prisoner exchange” and the possibility of the President of the United States or the Vice President attending the game, crossing over at halftime from one side of the stadium to the other so he can enjoy the game with both service academies.

And then there is the coolest tradition in all of college football, for my money: the singing of the alma maters, where the players from both teams stand by each other’s side for the playing of each academy’s alma mater, with the winning team getting the honor and reward of singing second. Singing second is a year-long mission for both programs. Navy has done it 14 straight times. With the Midshipmen getting beat up a bit by Temple in the AAC Championship Game, could this be the year Army finally ends their drought of singing second?

Whenever I am asked why the Army-Navy Game is so special, I mention all of these reasons above. But one point I always try to drive home is that this is a way to show respect and support for the brave young men who are training and preparing for a future that is much more dangerous than anything football could possibly present. As we know, these men are going to one day defend our country against dangers of a very different nature. While these teams may be bitter enemies for 60 minutes, we can rest assured they will still be brothers teaming together for a greater good for all of us. This is our opportunity to pay respect to that and honor and thank them for their commitment to serve and protect.

The Army-Navy Game should be on every college football fan’s bucket list.

Mailbag: Who got snubbed by the committee? Syracuse, of course!

There are a few good ones to choose from here. My first instinct is to suggest Houston and San Diego State in the Las Vegas Bowl, although I wonder about the impact of the departures from the Houston staff after Tom Herman was hired away by Texas and a half-dozen assistants have gone with him. Regardless, we get an awesome array of talent highlighted by Houston quarterback Greg Ward Jr. and San Diego State running back Donnel Pumphrey, and I’d sign up to watch those two play any given Saturday.

A couple of others I expect could be fun are the Armed Forces Bowl between Navy and Louisiana Tech (depends on how healthy Navy is) and the Boca Raton Bowl between Memphis and Western Kentucky. There should be quite a few points scored in each of those bowl games. The Boca Raton Bowl has a good shot to be one of the most entertaining bowl games overall.

I’ll go with Butch Jones of Tennessee. Both Jones and Kevin Sumlin of Texas A&M are playing bowl games in their home state this season, which ramps up the pressure to win a bit, I would think. But Jones may be in need of a win more than Sumlin or Auburn’s Gus Malzahn (Malzahn got Auburn to the Sugar Bowl somehow, so he’ll be fine for now). Sumlin should be feeling pressure, but Jones had a team that was supposed to waltz away with the SEC East championship and ended the season with a thud against Vanderbilt. Now they play a bowl game in Nashville as a punishment and get a Nebraska team that could give them some trouble if the Huskers can avoid making enough mistakes.

The good news, perhaps, is Jones is 2-0 in bowl games at Tennessee.

Well Sean, Syracuse lost to Notre Dame this season. That should be a non-qualifier right there. The Orange also gave up 76 points in their final game of the season, which surely allowed the committee an opportunity to get off the hook there. The committee does not take kindly to such Big 12-caliber defenses.

Submit your questions in the comment section below and I’ll attempt to satisfy you with my answer in next week’s column, or send you into a fit of rage. You can also tweet your questions to me on Twitter (@KevinOnCFB).

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.

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