ND's Path to the 2015 Playoffs

[ickythump1225]

OSU hasn't been awesome, but they've honestly only had 3 close games based on final score. IU, MN, Northern Illinois:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=ohio+state+football+schedule

What's their deal this year? How'd they regress while returning almost everyone?

FSU went through the same thing last year, though they did lose some players to the NFL. I think they just get kind of complacent and bored honestly. After you've won the natty I guess it's hard to come back and go through the slog again and get up to play Maryland or NC State.

 

[koonja]

FSU went through the same thing last year, though they did lose some players to the NFL. I think they just get kind of complacent and bored honestly. After you've won the natty I guess it's hard to come back and go through the slog again and get up to play Maryland or NC State.

Can you imagine the ND 'play down to your comp' games after winning a NC? We could schedule a D3 Indiana team and we'd win 17-13 lol.

 

[ickythump1225]

Fuckin' Stoops

Bob Stoops -- Win out, and Oklahoma Sooners should be in College Football Playoff

I'm sure BK will do some subtle politicking of his own, as well he should. Though I'm not sure it will be brazen and obvious as Stoops though.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Matt Hinton still has us in his Top 4:

 

[irishfan]

Matt Hinton still has us in his Top 4:

If OU/OSU win this week, I think we get jumped by the Bedlam winner sadly. That game will be too hyped up. Baylor taking down OK State would be huge on Saturday, because I have no confidence that injured TCU can hang with OU.

 

[IrishinSyria]

Well I think the counterargument is that the juggernauts are almost always going to produce the two or four best teams because they have the best recruiting and coaching.

If that guy can only produce two (debatable) instances since 1993 where a non-juggernaut was unfairly left out, I don't think there's much merit to the argument. It's just a product of how good those teams are. He tries to leave out Auburn to support his argument, but they are definitely a historical juggernaut.

Also, he includes ND despite our very mediocre 20 years.

 

[IrishinSyria]

Too bad for us that OK is also a juggernaut. BTW, pretty surprised we are considered one after I read he's doing it on 'modern era'.

He seems to have just defined teams in or out based on how they fit his theory.

 

[ab2cmiller]

Oklahoma St. is a mirage. I guarantee they don't win both of the next two games. They are far more likely to lose both of the games then they are to win them. Their lofty ranking is built off the fact that they are undefeated while squeaking out "high quality" wins against Texas, Kansas St. West Virginia and Iowa State. They are given far to much credit for beating TCU "handily" despite the fact that they were gifted 4 turnovers (3 of which led directly to touchdowns" and TCU played without Doctson for 2 1/2 quarters. Oklahoma is the only threat to us not getting in if we win out.

 

[ulukinatme]

Stoops picked the perfect time to do his politicking. They're coming off a big win against Baylor, while we just finished with mediocre teams in Pitt/Wake, with BC on the table this week. Oklahoma is all over the media right now, and our September/October match-ups are a memory at this point. If the committee jumps Oklahoma over us this week or next week, I'm not confidant we get in after the Stanford game unless there's chaos. It's looking unlikely that TCU will knock off the Sooners, and I don't think OK St. has the horses to do it either. If we stay ahead of the Sooners going into Stanford week I like our odds, but if they jump us before then we're probably in trouble unless we win our next two convincingly.

 

[IrishLax]

Rest assured, an undefeated Oklahoma State is a much bigger threat than a 1-loss Oklahoma that finishes in a 3-way tie atop a shit conference with a horrible loss on their record.

The TCU win is going to be worth nothing more than our Pitt win when all is said and done, and then they'd have to match up Baylor/Oklahoma State/Tennessee to Stanford/Navy/USC... not a landslide, and then not only is our loss better, but we own head-to-head relative to common opponents.

I frankly don't care about any of this though because the Stanford game is a coin flip. Go 11-1, and let the chips falls where they may.

 

[ab2cmiller]

The committee went so far as to look for extenuating circumstances in Stanford's loss to Northwestern being played at 9:00 am Pacific time. I can almost guarantee that they also are weighing our game conditions against Clemson as a significant factor. Not only do we have the "best loss", but it's probably as close to a "non-loss" as the committee will ever find assuming Clemson wins out.

 

[MPClinton22]

I really hope the fact that the Big 12's undefeated teams were still ranked relatively low by the committee shows that the conference's BS gaming of the system is not going unnoticed. They all loaded up on crap OOC games, then front-loaded all of their schedules with the worst conference games. This artificially inflated the records of the better Big 12 teams, leading to a misguided belief that these undefeated records are actually impressive. Then once one of the teams starts winning in November, they will be able to point at the records and rankings and say "LOOK AT THESE QUALITY WINS!"

This BS is working wonders on the idiots in Bristol, but the fact that undefeated Baylor and Ok State were ranked 6th and 8th, and 1-loss OK and TCU at 12th and 15th are two of the lowest ranked power-5 1 loss teams shows me that hopefully the committee is actually doing their homework.

 

[kmoose]

OSU hasn't been awesome, but they've honestly only had 3 close games based on final score. IU, MN, Northern Illinois:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=ohio+state+football+schedule

What's their deal this year? How'd they regress while returning almost everyone?

Average play from the QB position. Doesn't mean that they don't have good QBs, or that they can't suddenly catch fire like they did last year. But their QB play has been average, and that has been the difference for them.

 

[ab2cmiller]

Average play from the QB position. Doesn't mean that they don't have good QBs, or that they can't suddenly catch fire like they did last year. But their QB play has been average, and that has been the difference for them.

I thought a lot of analysts said that the loss of Devin Smith's deep threat has had a bigger effect on the offense then what many would've thought. That's part of the reason why it's a pretty big deal that Will Fuller is coming back next year. Losing him would also have a bigger effect on our offense then what many may believe.

 

[ulukinatme]

Rest assured, an undefeated Oklahoma State is a much bigger threat than a 1-loss Oklahoma that finishes in a 3-way tie atop a shit conference with a horrible loss on their record.

The TCU win is going to be worth nothing more than our Pitt win when all is said and done, and then they'd have to match up Baylor/Oklahoma State/Tennessee to Stanford/Navy/USC... not a landslide, and then not only is our loss better, but we own head-to-head relative to common opponents.

I frankly don't care about any of this though because the Stanford game is a coin flip. Go 11-1, and let the chips falls where they may.

Definitely, OK St is the bigger threat, but seeing how Oklahoma is finishing the year and what they did with Baylor, in addition to Oklahoma St. struggling with teams that weren't 4 turnover TCU, I think Oklahoma has a very good chance of running the table. Ideally Baylor beats OK St and OK St beats Oklahoma. We still have to go 11-1 for sure, and if that only gets us to a New Years 6 game then so be it. I'm not sure I want to face Alabama with the injuries we continue to sustain.

 

[koonja]

I'm OK to play anyone outside of Alabama after we get a month to heal. We have 3 OL that have ankle sprains right now that people don't necessarily know of outside of Q Nelson, but those need to heal too. If we get Jarron Jones back for 25 reps for Alabama, I'm tempted to say I'm not afraid of them either. But I'd much rather play someone else.

 

[ulukinatme]

I'm OK to play anyone outside of Alabama after we get a month to heal. We have 3 OL that have ankle sprains right now that people don't necessarily know of outside of Q Nelson, but those need to heal too. If we get Jarron Jones back for 25 reps for Alabama, I'm tempted to say I'm not afraid of them either. But I'd much rather play someone else.

While it would be great to have Jarron and Smythe back for the post season, I think both would have limited reps given the fact neither has really played all season (Other than 1 1/2 games for Smythe). It will be nice getting some others healed up prior to a bowl though.

 

[irishfan]

Rest assured, an undefeated Oklahoma State is a much bigger threat than a 1-loss Oklahoma that finishes in a 3-way tie atop a shit conference with a horrible loss on their record.

The TCU win is going to be worth nothing more than our Pitt win when all is said and done, and then they'd have to match up Baylor/Oklahoma State/Tennessee to Stanford/Navy/USC... not a landslide, and then not only is our loss better, but we own head-to-head relative to common opponents.

I frankly don't care about any of this though because the Stanford game is a coin flip. Go 11-1, and let the chips falls where they may.

I think I already posted this, but the committee better count that win as nothing if they play TCU without Boykin/Doctson. TCU could barely beat Kansas last week...

 

[IrishinSyria]

Rest assured, an undefeated Oklahoma State is a much bigger threat than a 1-loss Oklahoma that finishes in a 3-way tie atop a shit conference with a horrible loss on their record.

The TCU win is going to be worth nothing more than our Pitt win when all is said and done, and then they'd have to match up Baylor/Oklahoma State/Tennessee to Stanford/Navy/USC... not a landslide, and then not only is our loss better, but we own head-to-head relative to common opponents.

I frankly don't care about any of this though because the Stanford game is a coin flip. Go 11-1, and let the chips falls where they may.

Agree with most of this, but worth noting that the Big XII changed their rules after last year's debacle so that Oklahoma would be the conference champion if they finish with 1 loss.

 

[EifertPower]

Would we get in over a 12-1 Clemson if Clemson loses in ACC title game?
Would we get in over a 12-1 UNC if UNC wins ACC title game?
Would we get in over a 11-2 Florida if Florida loses to Florida State but beats Alabama?
Would we get in over a Big 10 champion if the Big 10 champ has 1 loss?

I'd rather focus on these hypotheticals than whether we get in over Big 12 winner.

 

[Booslum31]

Would we get in over a 12-1 Clemson if Clemson loses in ACC title game?
Would we get in over a 12-1 UNC if UNC wins ACC title game?
Would we get in over a 11-2 Florida if Florida loses to Florida State but beats Alabama?
Would we get in over a Big 10 champion if the Big 10 champ has 1 loss?

I'd rather focus on these hypotheticals than whether we get in over Big 12 winner.

We need to provide some eye-candy for the committee this weekend and we can't just eek by the Cardinal.

 

[Irish2155]

Why do the rankings this Tuesday have to be so late? Some of us have an early flight tomorrow.

 

[Irish2155]

Not all. We could beat BC and Stanford by a field goal each and we're still in if OK and OK St. both lose.

I'm kind of thinking MSU knocks off OSU this weekend. That would open up room for ND and whoever offenses it out of the B12.

 

[Cackalacky]

Are we in agreement that the PAC 12 is out of it?

 

[Irish2155]

Are we in agreement that the PAC 12 is out of it?

IMO just too much has to happen. I agree.

 

[pkt77242]

Are we in agreement that the PAC 12 is out of it?

Yes, unless shit gets real crazy the next two weeks.

 

[GATTACA!]

I honestly believe the only help we need is OKST losing. Oklahoma has a bad loss against a team we crushed, they will not jump us.

 

[Irish Insanity]

I'm kind of thinking MSU knocks off OSU this weekend. That would open up room for ND and whoever offenses it out of the B12.

Unless MSU or Iowa win out. Then they'll take a seat at the table.

 

[wizards8507]

Are we in agreement that the PAC 12 is out of it?

 

[Irish Insanity]

Remarkable to think ND may ultimately play 6 teams this season that won conference divisions: USC, Navy, Temple, Pitt, Clemson, Stanford

Irish Illustrated. via Twitter.