BYU breaks through?
Suddenly, BYU football is 5-0 and on top of the Big 12 standings after the preseason media train doubted they could reach that win tally after the 12th game in the season. Alone with Iowa State as the only unbeaten teams in the Big 12 Conference, we can finally ask ourselves the most enigmatic question in every fan's heart: Is BYU good?
Like, really good? It was a tale of two halves for a Cougar team whose suffocating defense and lights-out offense looked set to roll over Baylor in Waco, but BYU fell apart after the turn and nearly choked away their first road win in the Big 12. The Cougars have cracked our College Football Playoff projections for the first time this year, but the job isn't finished for Kalani Sitake's team.
The Tide Is Rolling.
I wasn't able to catch the Alabama vs Georgia game this weekend, but I opened the ESPN app during a family dinner to see a score of 28-0 flashing across the homepage. Oh my gosh, they're eating the dawgs.
'Bama looks legit, and the old guard of the SEC may have returned to Tuscaloosa despite the departure of Nick Saban. Kalen Deboer has his team ready to compete for a playoff spot, and could become the first head coach to lead two different programs to the College Football Playoff in consecutive seasons. It helps when one of those programs is Alabama, right?
With losses to Georgia and Ole Miss, the SEC has flipped upside down in line with other conferences across the nation--most notably the Big 12 and the ACC. In a season like this, projecting the final result is an impossibility, but that's not going to stop me.
College Football Playoff rankings prediction
Rank | Team | Reason | Previous Week |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Alabama | SEC Champion | 7 |
2 | Ohio State | Big 10 Champion | 2 |
3 | Miami (FL) | ACC Champion | 4 |
4 | BYU | Big 12 Champion | N/A |
5 | Texas | At-Large | 1 |
6 | Tennessee | At-Large | 5 |
7 | Penn State | At-Large | 8 |
8 | Georgia | At-Large | 7 |
9 | Oregon | At-Large | 9 |
10 | Kansas State | At-Large | N/A |
11 | Boise State | MWC Champion | 12 |
12 | Utah | At-Large | 3 |