The Playoff field and other bowl games are all set for 2019 college football season. Each week during the season our panel of experts will rank the Top 12 teams in college football. This season our panel includes: Rob Shields, Mike Lowe, Zack Kiesel, Brian (Pedro Cerrano) McGuire, Chris (Ricker Says) Ricker, Steve Birrer, and Chris Stoner. We are looking forward to another exciting College Football Playoff.
Championship Weekend saw no major surprises, and there is no real controversy as to the most deserving four teams to make the Playoff. The final Deified Dozen rankings and Playoff rankings feature the same Top 4 and in the same order: #1 LSU, #2 Ohio State, #3 Clemson and #4 Oklahoma. Each team won its conference and were the only Power 5 teams to finish with no more than one loss.
The Playoff matchups should be interesting. It is widely believed that the Top 3 teams are pretty close to even, while #4 Oklahoma is a notch below the pack. This would seem to benefit LSU, who will play the Sooners in the Peach Bowl, while Clemson and Ohio State figure to face a much tougher challenge in the Fiesta Bowl. But Oklahoma can score with any team in the country, and their defense is much improved over last year’s team that still made it to the Playoff.
Other interesting bowl games of note will be Alabama facing Michigan in the Citrus Bowl and Georgia vs Baylor in the Sugar Bowl. While the sample size is very small, Alabama under Nick Saban has a habit of not showing up for postseason games that don’t matter, so it will be interesting to see if they break that trend against Jim Harbaugh and Co….a coach who could really use a big win right now. To many, Baylor proved themselves worthy of a high ranking with their impressive showing against Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game. Despite losing their starting QB in the 1st Half, the Bears hung in and their defense performed very well against one of the highest scoring offenses in the country before falling short in overtime. Georgia will provide a great litmus test for Baylor, and just how good the Big 12 was this season in general. And finally, this year’s Group of Five entrant to the major bowls, Memphis, will go up against arguably the second-best team in the Big Ten in Penn State in the Cotton Bowl.
You can join in the Playoff and Bowl discussion here.
College Football Analyst
Mike is a Baltimore native living in Portland, OR since 2007. He currently runs his own business specializing in video production and online marketing. Prior to that he was a legal technology consultant, worked for 9 years at Johns Hopkins University and served 6 years in the Air Force. He also enjoys travel, food, beer, and is a volunteer at the Oregon Humane Society.