What If There
Was A Playoff? ... 2007
Looking at what might have happened over the years
By Pete Fiutak
What If There Was A Playoff ...
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CFN Playoff Explanation
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1998
Take the six BCS conference champions and give them automatic bids. Take
the highest ranked non-BCS team (Notre Dame included), and give
it an automatic bid. The eighth and final slot would be a Wild
Card going to the top ranked team in the BCS that isn’t already
in. With that in mind, here are the eight teams that would be in
and the best guess about what would happen.
Final BCS Ranking
in parentheses
ACC – Virginia Tech
(3)
Big East –
West Virginia (9)
Big
Ten – Ohio State (1)
Big 12 – Oklahoma (4)
Pac 10 – USC (7)
SEC – LSU (2)
Non-BCS – Hawaii (10)
Wild Card – Georgia
(5)
Bubble Busted:
Missouri (6), Kansas (8)
The Big 12 was the story of the 2007 season
with the rise of Missouri and Kansas, but the two teams would’ve
been left out in the cold thanks to a Georgia team that was on a
roll with six straight wins. There wouldn’t have been a lot of
complaining about the automatic bids, including an unbeaten
Hawaii team that finished 10th in the BCS rankings.
First Round Matchups
Indianapolis – No. 1 Ohio State
vs. No. 8 Hawaii
Miami – No. 2 LSU vs. No. 7 West Virginia
Dallas – No. 4 Oklahoma vs. No. 5 Georgia
Phoenix – No. 3
Virginia Tech vs. No. 6 USC
Matchup Analysis: West
Virginia might have been able to shock Oklahoma in the Fiesta
Bowl, but then-interim head coach Bill Stewart and his team
wouldn’t have had the same success against an LSU squad that was
getting healthier by the week. Call it a bad break for the
Mountaineers; they likely would’ve beaten Ohio State, Virginia
Tech, or Oklahoma. Ohio State might have been a soft No. 1, but
it wouldn’t have had too many problems with Colt Brennan and a
Hawaii team that wasn’t the same away from home. A red-hot
Georgia wasn’t quite as good as the hype, but it was good enough
to have beaten Oklahoma in the best game of the first round.
Virginia Tech, on paper, deserved to be in the discussion for
the national title with several fantastic wins, but USC was
humming at just the right time with four straight wins including
tremendous performances against Oregon State, Cal, Arizona
State, and UCLA teams that would all be off to bowls.
Projected Final Four
Rose Bowl – No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 6 USC
Sugar Bowl – No. 2
LSU vs. No. 5 Georgia
Matchup Analysis: USC
would’ve rolled past Ohio State. The athletes on defense
would’ve been too much for Todd Boeckman and the Buckeye attack,
while the USC offense would’ve been just good enough to not
screw up and provide any easy points. LSU vs. Georgia would’ve
been the SEC title game everyone wanted to see (Tennessee ended
up getting the nod in the East), and Glenn Dorsey and the Tiger
defense likely would’ve been able to do just enough to keep
Knowshon Moreno in check on the way to the national title.
Projected National
Championship: No. 2 LSU vs. No. 6 USC
Projected National
Champion: No. 2 LSU
Matchup Analysis: Flip
a coin. Remember, Ohio State was actually in the national title
game until the fourth quarter. No one does big games like USC,
but the defense wasn’t quite the killer the 2008 group would
become and the offense was inconsistent. Again, health would be
everything to a beaten and bruised LSU team that was excellent
against the Buckeyes with several weeks to heal up.
What If There Was A Playoff ...
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CFN Playoff Explanation |
2009
|
2008
|
2007
|
2006
-
2005
|
2004
|
2003
|
2002
|
2001
|
2000
|
1999 |
1998