2018 isn’t the most dramatic college football season at the top. Plenty of oddball teams are succeeding in the middle Black De'Vondre Campbell Jersey , and the New Year’s Six race has sufficient drama, but the Playoff race itself likely only has gentle twists still to go ... unless the Big One strikes.First, the Playoff committee’s updated top 25 rankings entering Week 12:Alabama, 10-0Clemson, 10-0Notre Dame, 10-0Michigan, 9-1Georgia, 9-1Oklahoma, 9-1LSU, 8-2Washington State, 9-1West Virginia, 8-1Ohio State Youth Matt Ryan Jersey , 9-1UCF, 9-0Syracuse, 8-2Florida, 7-3Penn State, 7-3Texas, 7-3Iowa State, 6-3Kentucky, 7-3Washington, 7-3Utah, 7-3Boston College, 7-3Mississippi State, 6-4Northwestern Youth Keanu Neal Jersey , 6-4Utah State, 9-1Cincinnati, 9-1Boise State, 8-2Here’s my best guess as to how the bowl picture will end up.So: what will 2018 add to the list of the Playoff’s biggest controversies? It’s almost certainly somewhere in the following list.Playoff-altering results that would not actually alter the Playoff11. UCF wins or loses any game against anybody in any timeline: Nothing matters.10. Washington State loses to anybody: The Pac-12 then misses the College Football Playoff. Few things are more normal than that.9. Oklahoma and West Virginia go 1-1 against each other, Iowa State raises new levels of hell, or some other result in which the Big 12 has no one-loss teams: The Big 12 is then out of the College Football Playoff again ... thanks in part to the reincarnated version of the Big 12 Championship that wrecked many a national title shot before. I’m counting all of Big 12 revelry as just one game, and it’s technically more than that, but not a whole lot more.Playoff-altering results that would only very slightly alter the Playoff8. Alabama loses to Auburn: Say the top four win out, other than Bama losing to Auburn before beating Georgia. The Tide are still in the Playoff, and are we sure they’re down at No. 4? Could they enter at No. 3, ahead of a Big Ten champ Ohio State, for example?Playoff-altering results that would invigorate debate Youth Julio Jones Jersey , at very leastFor both of the following groups, we can only guess based on likely r茅sum茅s. Let’s do that at the end of this post. 6. Clemson loses to Duke/South CarolinaClemson loses the ACC ChampionshipClemson continues to close in on Bama, at least according to S&P+. And the committee seemed to really like the ACC Atlantic a week ago, throwing three Clemson opponents into the top 20. But that part’s on thin ice. So how would the Tigers look if they became a dominant 12-1 team in a season with at least a couple others of those?4.Notre Dame loses to SyracuseNotre Dame loses to USCNotre Dame has that shiny win over Michigan and wins over two other Power 5 division leaders (such as they are), but the numbers aren’t impressed with how the Irish have done it. The consensus has long been that the Irish need to win 12 games in order to make it, but how sure are we about that? Could 11 get it done?Playoff-altering results that would definitely change a spot3. Ohio State wins out: We’re so deprived of chaos, Ohio State barreling into yet another Playoff picture would count as a dose of anarchy. (But take a look at the r茅sum茅s table below. I’m no longer 100 percent certain the Buckeyes are win-and-in.)2. The Big Ten East champ loses to Northwestern: The Big Ten’s spot opens up! I’d guess a one-loss Big 12 champ slides in, if we have one of those.A b s o l u t e h o w l i n g r a g e from coast to coast1. Alabama loses to Georgia (or, if you want to get even spicier, what if Georgia loses to Georgia Tech and then beats Bama?)Two gotta go, and remember the committee put a significantly lesser Alabama in the Playoff last year, then saw that team vindicate it to some degree by winning the whole thing:12-1 Alabama13-0 Clemson12-1 Georgia12-0 Notre Dame12-1 Michigan12-1 OklahomaHave fun!Here’s one guess as to how things might stack up in any number of overlapping potential realities:Potential Playoff resumesTeamS&P+ rankingRecord vs. bowl teams (estimated)Record vs. top 25 (estimated)Record vs. top 10 (estimated)TeamS&P+ rankingRecord vs. bowl teams (estimated)Record vs. top 25 (estimated)Record vs. top 10 (estimated)A lot of these are real close and could depend on the committee’s interpretation of things that have already happened and things yet to happen http://www.authenticsatlantafalcons.com/cheap-ryan-schraeder-jersey , but I’d figure something like this is a starting point.I tried to keep these “estimated” totals fair across teams, such as by counting Stanford and Missouri as top-25 wins for everyone, Purdue as a .500-plus win for everyone, etc.There are obviously circumstances that’d swing some things that table. For example, I had the Big 12 champ beating the runner-up twice and thus knocking that team out of the top 10, but it’s roughly just as likely that Iowa State or Texas is in the Big 12 Championship, thus preserving a win over Oklahoma or West Virginia as a top-10 win. If that sentence didn’t make any sense, don’t worry about it.The point is: if an undefeated SEC team loses to the SEC champ in a year with an undefeated Notre Dame and undefeated ACC champ, prepare for (probably justified!) boiling outrage from every part of the country that isn’t South Bend, the Southeast, or the Mid-Atlantic. Did I miss something crucial? Let me know, and let’s add it.Calvin Ridley is making history with his wild scoring spree Calvin Ridley is a man on fire at the moment http://www.authenticsatlantafalcons.com/cheap-ricardo-allen-jersey , having turned a disappointing first week into a “shut up, doubters” stat line through four weeks that borders on bonkers. Ridley’s numbers—15 total catches through four weeks, with 264 yards—are excellent for a rookie but not head-spinning on their own. It’s when you add in his scoring numbers that things get both ridiculous and historic, as Ridley is now outpacing every other rookie receiver in NFL history in terms of scoring through four games. That was with him having zero catches against the Eagles, too.Ridley has been destroying defenses in the red zone—and on some long bombs—thanks to a devastating combination of speed, refined route running, and a great feel for what he needs to do to shake the man covering him. Couple that with the impossibility of covering all of Atlanta’s weapons—with Julio Jones in particular drawing a ton of attention every week—and you have a man who is is working with favorable matchups and exploiting them every week. The Falcons have had unbelievable luck with first round receivers these past 13 years or so. I don’t think Ridley can keep this scoring pace up, but given Atlanta’s challenges this year, I certainly hope he does.
