The first season of the new College Football Playoff system is now behind us with Ohio State emerging as the national champion after defeating Oregon on January 12th. We first want to say congratulations to Buckeye players, coaches and fans. Needless to say, many of us were surprised when Ohio State upset favored Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and Oregon upset FSU in the Rose Bowl.
Some have speculated that had the old BCS system still been in place, Alabama and FSU would have played for the national title.
Hypotheticals aside, it was certainly an exciting, and often controversial season, which of course is spilling into the off-season.
One controversy is whether the number of teams in the playoff is big enough. One side of the argument says yes – four teams playing in a semi-final and then final game is sufficient, especially if the traditional bowl games will remain. Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune for example contends that if you expand the playoff schedule, the big bowl games will lose since they will inevitably host lower profile games and teams.
If everyone has spent their energy watching playoff/bowl games through December, they’re not going to tune in to watch the 11th and 16th ranked teams play in the Rose Bowl explains Reusse.
Of course, the other side of the argument says it should be expanded to include other well-deserving teams from outside the “Power Five” conferences. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com for example explains how a four-team playoff is inherently flawed when you have 5 major conferences to begin with. He cites Baylor and the Horned Frogs of TCU as being teams who should have had a shot.
Jeffrey Taviano of the Delaware News Journal has another idea – expand the playoffs to 16 teams so that ALL conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) get an automatic bid. Part of his justification includes the fact that lesser-known Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) teams must play in a 24-team playoff to determine their national champion.
(The 2014 FCS championship was held right here in our backyard in Frisco, Texas with the Bison of North Dakota State defeating the Redbirds of Illinois State 29-27)
Just because the season is over doesn’t mean there isn’t anything going on in college football…
You may be lamenting the fact that the season is over, but there’s still plenty going in the world of football.
This Saturday, the Senior Bowl in Mobile, AL will feature college football’s top seniors from around the country, including Tayo Fabulje of TCU and La’el Collins of LSU.
This game of course kicks off the NFL Draft season, which will begin in earnest following the Super Bowl in 2 weeks between the Patriots and Seahawks.
The NFL Draft will actually occur between April 30th and May 2nd, but it’s already being widely discussed.
One player in particular, QB Jameis Winston of FSU, made a big splash lately by declaring his intention to enter the NFL Draft after being granted special eligibility since he’s only a sophomore. Other top draft picks include Marcus Mariotta of Oregon, Cedric Obguehi of Texas A&M and La’el Collins of LSU to name a few.
As to what next season holds, it’s too early to tell at this point according to most, but that doesn’t stop a few people from making a prediction. One prediction for 2015 is for the TCU Horned Frogs to have a strong shot – most of their star players are returning for another season, and according to Peter Berkes of SB Nation, the bitter memory of being over-ridden by Ohio State in the 2014 post-season rankings will still be fresh.
Of course, we will be extremely busy here at Big Game USA helping college teams choose their footballs for next season. We invite you to continue browsing our site to learn more about this exciting process.
We are proud to be the premier supplier of NCAA-compliant, customized footballs to teams across the country. We are able to make footballs for some teams available to the public in our college football store, but also have an extensive selective of durable, hand-crafted footballs for competitive play, gifts souvenirs and much more.