BCS Playoffs – 2007 Matchups
Posted by Patrick on 13 Dec 2007
Let’s assume for a minute that the NCAA’s FBS, that would be the organization formerly known as Division 1-A, were to institute a playoff system with this years teams. And just for laughs let’s say it’s a 16-team tournament even though the top 10 teams are the only “BCS bowl” team under the current hokey-ass, lamefied system. Using that bracket as a basis (go to ESPN if you can’t visualize a 16-team bracket), let’s look at what the matchups would be and which one would be the “best”. Also, yell loudly when you spot a “bad” game in any round.
First Round:
1 Ohio State vs 16 Tennessee
8 Kansas vs 9 West Virginia
5 Georgia vs 12 Florida
4 Oklahoma vs 13 Illinois (I’m yelling loudly)
3 Virginia Tech vs 14 Boston College
6 Missouri vs 11 Arizona State
7 USC vs 10 Hawaii
2 LSU vs 15 Clemson
The best matchup in this round, if you ask me, is USC vs Hawaii. I’m tempted to say it’s UGA versus Florida in a rematch of the annual world’s largest cocktail party, but honestly Florida should be scared of UGA right now. So no, USC vs Hawaii. We’re talking about Petey Carroll and his pretty boy JD Bootylicious with all that offense taking on Juniper Jones and Colt 45 Brennan and all their offense. Neither team really does well on defense – yeah, ok USC at least fields 11 capable athletes, but let’s face it that their defense is the reason they’re not in the top 3.
Best chance for an upset: Arizona State over Missouri in my book. Though it’s not really an upset, I think WV would take out Kansas as well. My picks are in bold.
Second Round:
1 Ohio State vs 9 West Virginia
5 Georgia vs 4 Oklahoma
3 Virginia Tech vs 11 Arizona State
7 USC vs 2 LSU
The best game in this round, and probably the best matchup you are going to get out of these teams, is Georgia vs Oklahoma. Face facts folks, at the end of the 2007 season, Oklahoma is scary good – Georgia is omfg scary good. Let’s also realize that Georgia was 1 triple overtime Tennessee game versus Kentucky away from being in the SEC title game against LSU, whom they would have taken behind the woodshed and been ranked #1 or #2 at the end of the season – frankly I think they are the hottest team in college football right now – maybe they weren’t for the whole season, but for right now, they are executing with the most horsepower. But what makes this matchup so great is that Oklahoma is the true #2 team in my opinion. OU got lots of dap for winning the Big 12 with pollsters, but found themselves at #4 regardless. Sadly, only one team can move forward, and I’m picking Georgia in a close, physical battle.
Best upset chance: West Virginia destroys Ohio State in a laugher.
Semifinals:
9 West Virginia vs 5 Georgia
3 Virginia Tech vs 2 LSU
I just raved about UGA, so I’ll talk about why VT will beat LSU. It’s because of Les Miles and his general inability to manage a game; in this match he’s going to do something boneheaded and it’s going to cost his hard-working team the game. Not to discredit VT, because they are going to put points on the board vs LSU’s mediocre secondary and “hey he breathed on me so throw a flag” mentality. This team may be spouting about “we were only 2x 3OT losses away from being undefeated”, but at that point, a loss is a loss – if you’re a good enough team, win the game in four quarters and keep your panties on your waist whining about triple overtime. if your defense could hold a goal line, they wouldn’t have lost either game anyway. I’ve got VT over LSU somewhere in the 31-20 range.
Championship Game:
5 Georgia vs 3 Virginia Tech
Yes, so it comes down to this for all the hypothetical marbles you want to throw into the circle. As I already said, Georgia is omfg scary good right now. Like cakerockstheparty said in such eloquent words, the dawgs are “out for blood”, Turnbull A.C.’s be damned. I’ve got them taking this tournament against VT in a game somewhere around 27-23 – a close one.
So, if you’re a Georgia fan, let me hear some love!
Will college football ever see a playoff? Yes. Will we be old, crotchety men shaking our canes at the TV by then? Maybe.
Georgia
Against the Grain 
Elvi Patterson! said
Being a die hard OU sooner fan, I think they could beat Georgia. I do agree that it would be an epic battle. Keep in mind though that OU is out for blood since the last time they were in the national spotlight was to a heartbreaking loss to Boise State in a timeless game.
Seth said
But those poor STUDENT-athletes wouldn’t get time to study for their exams if we added 4 more weeks of football!
You know, I started typing a comment that ended up being about as long as your orginal post. To sum it up, I agree with the tournament/playoff system that you propose. The current system is completely and utterly broken; however, it worked for me this year…GO BUCKEYES!!! Yeah, I know, we got completely embarassed in the national championship by Florida last year (TWICE…if you count basketball as a sport) and we had a pretty weak schedule this year (no thanks to our fellow Big Ten teams), but I’ll take it any way we can get it.
I think UGA vs VT would be a great game. My son is a huge Hokies fan. I really like the 2-QB offense they’ve been using the last few weeks. They are a tougher team than most give them credit for. They’ve improved a lot since losing to then #2 LSU and then #2 BC.
As for Georgia, I can’t stand anything related to bulldogs. I start twitching and mumbling something about Fort Gordon. You might have a good football team, but the unfortunate choice of team name means I have to root against them (-;
Seth said
Ahhh…it stripped my /sarcasm tag after the first paragraph. Man, when you say, “You can use these tags”, you really mean it.