Bowl Game Synopsis

This will likely be the last football post until next year so soak it up folks! This post answers those questions everyone debates like which confernce is better? Do preseason ratings matter? As well as shedding some light on the 2018 season as a whole.

Bowl season gave us some crazy games… lets start with the biggest one.

Sooo wait, Clemson won the whole thing over Alabama?

• While certainly unexpected (Alabama was favored to win by 6), Clemson won the National Championship 44-16. This is the largest margin of victory of the College Football Playoff era certainly but the biggest since 2005 when USC beat Oklahoma by 36 points (technically Alabama beat Notre Dame in the 2013 title game by the same amount as Clemson just beat them).

 How mad was Saban?

• Pretty calm considering this is the worst loss for him during this tenure at Alabama. Nick Saban hadn’t lost by that much since he coached at LSU and the Tigers were beaten by none other than the Tide 0-31 in 2002. (Note that this stat does not include Saban’s NFL career).

I’m tired of it always being Alabama vs Clemson, haven’t they played every year?

• Yes. Clemson has played Alabama every year since 2016. Although in 2018 it was in the CFP semifinal, not the final.
• Both teams have won 2 and lost 2 games
• Clemson wins the overall scoring total 125 to 116.
• Both teams in that time have won 2 National Championships.
• However overall the two teams have met 19 times in history and Alabama holds the better record at 14 wins and 5 losses.

Anything else that made this national championship special?

• Trevor Lawrence, Clemson QB, became the 2nd true freshman ever to lead his team to a national championship. The only other person to do so was Oklahoma QB Jamelle Holieway in 1985.
• Clemson won the national championship, making the Tigers 15-0 for the season. That feat had not been done since 1897 by Penn.
• Dabo Swinney joins the ranks of Nick Saban as the only other active Head Coach to have won multiple national championships. (Note: Urban Meyer was on that list but he retired at the end of this season).

But enough about the title game, get to the controversial stuff.

Which conference is best?

• The answer is none of them really. It was pretty even across the Power 5 (Big 12, Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Pac 12). Conference USA did well and the Independents (those not in a conference: Notre Dame, BYU and Army) tied for the top spot.

	Wins	Losses	Total	Winning Percentage
Conference USA	4	2	6	66.7%
Independents	2	1	3	66.7%
Mountain West	3	2	5	60.0%
Sun Belt	3	2	5	60.0%
Big 12	4	3	7	57.1%
Big Ten	5	4	9	55.6%
SEC	6	5	11	54.5%
ACC	5	5	10	50.0%
Pac 12	3	4	7	42.9%
American Athletic	2	4	6	33.3%
MAC	1	5	6	16.7%

I hear players are sitting out of bowl games, why? 

• It is true that since 2016 when Leonard Fournette (LSU) and Christian McCaffrey (Stanford) chose to sit out of their bowl games in the interest of their NFL career, this has become a trend in college football. We are seeing more and more every year. Players sit out to ensure they do not get injured before the NFL draft. If they get injured in that game, that hurts their draft pick which hurts how much money they can make.

Has that happened before?

• Yes. Jake Butt (yes that’s his actual last name) was a TE for Michigan and got injured in the 2016 Orange Bowl when the Wolverines played Florida St. He was considered the #3 TE going into the draft that year and was estimated to go in the second round. However, Jake was smart and had insurance policies in place. According to ESPN, Jake had a $4MM disability policy (which would kick in if he could no longer play football) and a $2MM loss of value policy which would pay him out if he dropped out of the 2nd round of picks. After the game, he did fall into the 5th round but don’t worry he still plays for the Broncos and signed a $2MM+ contract.

Doesn’t this hurt the team’s chances of winning their bowl game?

• Yes. This year 23 players sat out. Those teams went 5-9 this bowl season. Most notably #7 Michigan and #16 West Virginia both had 3 or more players sit out the game and they lost 41-16 and 34-18, respectively.

UCF going to claim another national championship?

• Not this year. UCF lost to LSU 40-32 to snap their 25 game winning streak. UCF did have to play without their star QB, McKenzie Milton who got injured earlier in November but LSU also had players sit out.

Other cool facts from this season?

• Army and Washington St both reached 11 wins for the first time in their program’s history.
• Kliff Kingsbury has one of (if not the) shortest tenure as OC with 30 days at USC before taking a NFL head coaching job at the Arizona Cardinals.
• Kyler Murray has chance of being the first player to be picked in the 1st round of 2 different drafts, the NFL and MLB.

Any talk to expanding the CFP?

• No. Expect that not to change for some time. Although this year the Big 10 and the PAC 12 were left out of the playoff as well as any schools not in a Power 5 conference. Its a debate many people like to have but realistically will not become a reality for a while.

What coaches will be changing colors for next season?

• There were some major coaching changes, especially noteworthy:
• • Coach – coming from –> going to
• • Les Miles – coming out of retirement –> Kansas (blue and crimson)
• • • Replacing David Beaty
• • • You have heard this name before because he coached at LSU for 11 years and won the Tigers a national title in 2007.
• • Mac Brown – coming out of retirement –> UNC (carolina blue and white)
• • • Replacing Larry Fedora
• • • You have heard this name before because he coached at Texas for 15 years and won the Longhorns a national title in 2005.
• • Dana Holgorsen – West Virginia (blue and old gold) –> Houston (scarlet and white)
• • Neal Brown – Troy (cardinal, silver and black) –> West Virginia (blue and old gold)
• • Urban Meyer – Ohio St (grey and scarlet) –> retirement (although many think that is debatable)
• • • Ohio St hired Ryan Day
• • Bill Snider – Kansas st (royal purple) –> retirement
• • • Chris Klieman is taking over
• • Matt Wells – Utah St (blue and white) –> Texas Tech (scarlet and black)
• • Manny Diaz – OC for Miami –> Miami (originally took the Temple job until he was hired as head coach by the Hurricanes) so technically he wont be changing a colors.
• • Geoff Collins – Temple (white and cherry) –> Georgia Tech (white and old gold)
• • Rod Carey – Northern Illinois (cardinal and black) –> Temple (white and cherry)
• • Other coaching changes: Colorado (Mel Tucker), Louisville (Scott Satterfield), Maryland (Mike Locksley), Troy (Chip Lindsey), Utah St (Gary Anderson)

Why is your bf already pissed about next season?

• The “Way Too Early” polls have just come out. Here is the comparison of the final AP poll and the “Way Too Early” preseason poll for next year. So if your bf is a fan of Kentucky, Fresno St, West Virginia, Utah St, Boise St, Cincinnati or Iowa, he is probably unhappy. If he’s an Oregon, Wisconsin, Auburn or Nebraska fan he ought to be reallly happy with this version of the poll.

How much do preseason or early polls matter? 

• Not much. Here is a direct comparison of the preseason and final AP Poll ranks as well as a comparison. There is a big difference.
• 7 teams were not ranked at the beginning that are ranked now.
• LSU was the biggest mover going from #25 to ending #6. However Florida went from unranked to #7, clearly the Gators were underestimated. In comparison, #4 preseason Wisconsin finished unranked along with #8 and #9 in the top 10.
• In total, 55 different teams were ranked at some point this season.

So I don’t have to hear about this again until August? 

• Well not necessarily. The NFL draft is on April 25th – 27th. The NFL combine will be televised (Feb 26th – March 4th). There will also be plenty of talk about the top recruiting classes. These will continue throughout the months but signing day has passed so it should slow down a bit. Here are the top recruiting classes as of 1/11/19.

I miss it already. When is next season?

• Me too. First game of the 2019 season is on August 24th with Arizona at Hawaii.

See yall then!