NCAA Football Report (Week 6)
The NCAA is an interesting league in that it has been made up of multiple smaller leagues that are the conferences.
The conferences in the NCAA are their own mini-leagues in themselves as they all play their own conferences throughout the season and compete for their own championships every year.
These mini-leagues have become an essentially part of the NCAA as they are a way for the voters to determine who belongs in the playoffs.
The Power Five conferences are essentially given the inside track to the playoffs as they are the conferences made up of the biggest teams in the country with the most attention.
The Power Five conferences usually have more than one team who rises to the top of the rankings and has a good shot at the playoff.
The conference championship is the best way to determine the difference between those two teams with the loser likely falling out of the playoff and the winner likely making it.
The Southeastern Conference dealt with this plenty in the past decade as they have constantly been at the top.
In the BCS era, the SEC conference saw multiple teams make it to the top of the rankings and eventually saw the conference championship determine the team to make the National Championship.
Sometimes the SEC conference even saw a conference champion against a second place team face-off in the national championship.
They were very much the conference that everyone wanted to beat for the entire BCS era and when they entered the playoff era their dominance was still there.
In the CFP though it was slightly different as the new system gave a spot to four teams making it almost automatic that the Power Five conferences would each get a spot aside from the worst champion.
These five conferences would fight it out to make the playoff as every team in the conferences would need to win the conference title in order to get their spot in the top four of the final rankings.
If there was more than one team from one conference it was almost guaranteed that the team with the conference championship at the end of the year would be the team who took a spot in the playoff alongside other championships teams.
Although the SEC has often had to deal with the issue of multiple teams in the hunt for the playoff they are no longer the conference with the biggest debate surrounding their team.
That would be the Big Ten conference who is now full of teams that are within striking distance of the playoff.
As the season heads closer to the playoff fight the Big Ten will see some of these teams fall off as they will eventually play each other and only one will come out on top.
In the end, there will be more than a couple of Big Ten teams sitting near the top of the rankings with the Big Ten championship game acting as a defacto playoff round for the national championship.
It is a part of the system that has been created by the NCAA and one that makes the conference play even more important.
The pursuit of a national championship is often a battle between how teams look as they never really play each other.
It is more of a debate than an exact science but conferences provide a little more science to the equation.
The best of the best deserve their shot at the national championship and in the Power Five conferences, those best teams are the ones who win championships as every team looks for that title and a ticket to the playoff at the end of the year.
Key Scores:
#5 Washington Huskies 70-21 Oregon Ducks
– It is clear that the Huskies are a different team than many expected this year and they made sure everyone knew as they stepped over a formerly dominant team solidifying their spot as favourites and proving that the Ducks are far from the team they used to be
#8 Texas A&M Aggies 45-38 Tennessee Volunteers #9
– The Volunteers came into the season with a lot of expectations but from the start of the season they didn’t look as great as many thought although they continued to win games but their issues were exposed against the Aggies in their first loss
Navy Midshipmen 46-40 Houston Cougars #6
– They were once one of the teams to watch this year as they were competing to bust the playoff bracket and to move to a new conference but they didn’t seem to take the Midshipmen seriously enough as they took a loss thanks to Navy’s unique offence
#20 Oklahoma Sooners 45-40 Texas Longhorns
– The Red River Rivalry was a chance for Texas to save their season as a win against one of their biggest rivals could change a lot but despite fighting until the end to get the win they fell short losing another game
Next Week:
Duke Blue Devils vs. Louisville Cardinals (Friday, October 14th; 7:00 pm ET)
– After a tough loss for the Cardinals, a team that once seemed on their way to the playoff looks to get back on track and see what they can do as Lamar Jackson attempts to get back to winning against the Blue Devils
Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Tennessee Volunteers (Saturday, October 15th; 3:30 pm ET)
– The Volunteers still have a chance to make an impact but it may all come down to this as they will need to beat the Tide in order to have a chance at the playoff while the Tide look to show just how good they are
Ole Miss Rebels vs. Arkansas Razorbacks (Saturday, October 15th; 7:00 pm ET)
– The Rebels and Razorbacks are hoping to keep their SEC championship hopes alive but another loss for either of them could sink any of those hopes as they look to stay alive with a big conference win
Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Wisconsin Badgers (Saturday, October 15th; 8:00 pm ET)
– The Big Ten continues to be one of the top conferences in the country and the Buckeyes are hoping to stay as one of the best as they take on the Badgers who will look to make an impact on the conference and the top 25 with a big surprise win
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