NCAA Football Report (Week 3)
The NCAA is a league based in multiple battles that can have a big difference on the overall season.
In the NCAA the ultimate goal is to get to the College Football playoff but getting there is a big challenge.
It isn’t as simple as winning games and moving up the standings as the standings for the playoff are all determined by a committee of football and non-football people.
These people determine the fate of the programs as it is only the teams they consider to be the top four in the country that have a shot at the title.
That can make it tough for a lot of teams as they might not be in the right conference or playing the right competition on a consistent basis.
Impressive wins against second-tier teams won’t make anyone take a second look and won’t help a team move up the rankings.
Winning big games against the best in the country get the attention focused and doing it consistently keeps them in the conversation.
One big aspect that tends to make a massive difference in the voting for the playoff comes into effect when the country-wide battle gets smaller.
Although everyone is competing for the top four spots in the rankings throughout the country to get there they need to fight the smaller battles.
Those are the battles in the conferences that can make a big difference when a team is looking for the bigger goal of being ranked among the top four.
Conferences are a part of the game that often gets forgotten as the focus continues to turn to the national stage.
They can make a big difference though and for some, the conference is the biggest battle of them all.
That was always the case in the SEC where the majority of talent was located for close to a decade.
Simply getting through the murderer’s row that was the SEC meant that a team was more than ready to compete at the highest level.
After all winning the SEC division crown meant that one team had to go through some of the best teams in the country.
They would eliminate the best of the best just trying to get through their own conference and often that meant that they were favourites to be the top team in the country.
It came true for years as the SEC champion was often the national champion at year’s end or at least playing for the national championship.
Things have changed recently though as the kings of the SEC are still considered the best team in the country but that crown tends to be held by the Alabama Crimson Tide.
They haven’t been challenged for long in the conference and although there are still good teams in the SEC the fact is that Alabama is far and above all of them.
At the end of Week 3 in the NCAA, the Tide were the only team ranked in the top ten from the SEC while most of the other conferences put in multiple teams.
The only conference joining the SEC with one team representative is the ACC who see Clemson as their only true challenger after they continue to know everyone else off.
That included the Big Ten who ended the week with four teams in the top ten including Penn State who sat at the final CFP spot.
Even the Pac-12 with their quick decline are coming back and putting teams in the top ten with Washington and USC both counting among the best in the league.
The Big 12 has been criticised regularly for their lack of talent but Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are both sitting among the best, which could make Bedlam, even more, fun this year.
It is an interesting shift but one that still sees Alabama as the best team in the country ranked #1 from start to finish.
Conference play is beginning to get underway and as the season goes on these conference games get so much more important.
They are the games that mean more to everyone and the games that tend to provide the most unpredictable results.
Alabama needs to work through the rest of the SEC and Clemson need to do the same in the ACC if either want a rematch in the National Championship.
Meanwhile, there is likely only one team from the Big 12, Pac-12 and Big Ten that will have a shot at the top four.
What team that is will be a big difference and as conference play continues it is going to make all of the games that much more important.
Winning a conference title is a good way to convince the voters that you belong but to do that you have to take out the other great teams in their own conference.
That is going to be tough this year as more conferences have more great teams making all of their in-conference games big every week.
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