Well, needless to say we don’t see things the same way the Committee does…
Based on the BTA win against Alabama, we biased voters see Georgia as being the prohibitive 1 seed, and Ohio State/Texas Tech was a toss up. Notre Dame and Miami both get in while Alabama is sitting at home with Roll Tide Willy sipping on Miller Lites. Tulane and James Madison would again be in based on the highest five conference champs bit. We’re also overlooking TAMU’s charmin-soft schedule and giving them a five seed, which means the matchups would look as follows.
Matchups:
First Round:
TAMU vs James Madison; Ole Miss vs. Tulane; Oregon vs. Notre Dame: Oklahoma versus Miami
I could see TAMU and Ole Miss slaughtering their G5 opponents, but I would give the Irish the edge against Oregon and I think Oklahoma would have Beck rattled and prevail against Miami. We’ve seen it happen before, right?
Second Round:
Georgia vs. Oklahoma (what a defensive battle, but I give the edge to Georgia); Indiana vs. Notre Dame (an Indiana spectacular!); Ohio State versus Ole Miss; and Texas Tech versus TAMU (a Texas classic!).
Georgia-Oklahoma would be a Rose Bowl game rematch, but would look very, very different, in my opinion. Indiana and Notre Dame would be in the Cotton Bowl, Ohio State-Ole MIss in Miami, and the Texas Bowl would be at the Sugar Bowl. Still not geographically sound. Based on the matchups, I’d be inclined to go with:
Third Round:
Georgia vs Texas Tech at the Peach Bowl; Indiana versus Ohio State at the Fiesta (we love a good rematch, don’t we?)
Georgia’s third game at their home away from home, MBS, against a largely home crowd would give the Bulldogs the edge here. Any other coach outside of Ryan Day and I’d say Ohio State would win the rubber match, but I give it to Cignetti and the Hoosiers to prevail.
National Championship:
Georgia vs. Indiana – why do I say this? Because this is how y’all voted.
National Championship Matchup (per Mumme Voting)
- Georgia – 100%
- Indiana – 54%
- Oregon – 23%
- Texas Tech – 10%
How would the Bulldogs and Hoosiers fare? Well, how does Kirby do against former Saban disciples? The vaunted Indiana defense, who, mind you, versus ranked teams won by 5 (vs Iowa), 10 (versus Oregon), and 3 (versus Ohio State). When faced up against competent defenses, Indiana seems to struggle a touch, but they’ve got a great defense, too. While they seem like a team of destiny, they are also a team of Disney. Who knows how strong the SEC vs B1G really is, which can be largely optics, but what I saw on Saturday wasn’t necessarily impressive.
Make no mistake, though, Indiana is tough. They’re scrappy, fiery, and they believe in themselves. We’ve seen these formulas before, a coach who is trying build program credibility and has a team that rallies behind him, and is a branch from the Saban tree. Sounds like Kirby, minus the alma mater connection.
I’m horrible at the Fabris Poll, so I won’t put a prediction. I’ll let you guys take care of that in the comments.
