Inside College Football: 19 teams can still make the College Football Playoff
College football has reached the midway point of the 2015 season, yet so little has been decided. With 17 teams still in play for the College Football Playoff, the second half of the campaign may be more a marathon than a sprint.
By
Dennis Dodd
•
6 min read
College football has limped to the midway point of the 2015 season. Seven weeks in, seven weeks to go and the sport has practically had to be carted off the field. You can almost populate an All-America team with players who have suffered season-ending injuries.
And that was before Jalen Watts-Jackson sacrificed a hip to beat Michigan.
If it isn't coaches' conduct, it's their bosses' impatience. Five teams enter the second half with interim head coaches.
It seems we read more about substance abuse rehab than replay. Steve Spurrier is gone and forgotten -- at least his team in midseason.
The on-field disappointments have been numerous and profound -- Auburn, Oregon, Nebraska, USC and Central Florida among them. One minute Florida's quarterback is playing at an All-SEC level; the next, he can't play for a year.
The team with the most to lose (Ohio State) still hasn't. Still, the No. 1 Buckeyes haven't played up a standard they themselves set winning the past 20 games.
The Tigers of LSU might be the poster children for the first half of 2015. They've gotten to the halfway point facing four consecutive opposing backup quarterbacks. That's not diminishing a 6-0 start, that's the way of the college football world these days. Besides, Mother Nature probably owed LSU a break -- not of a limb, obviously -- after washing out the opener against McNeese State.
Here are some stories, trends and stats to follow in the second half of the season ...
Wide open: Six teams got first-place votes this week in the AP Top 25. Six! Of the top 11 teams in that poll, 10 will play each other in the final seven weeks.
You don't need to be told the College Football Playoff race is wide open. We're at the point that the American Athletic Conference may have a playoff contender (see below).
We told you before the season, the playoff was a closed shop. Not so much now. The Big 12 could get two in. Same for the Big Ten. Notre Dame could be a party crasher. How's that going to play with the conferences left out?
Get ready for a national harangue over the postseason that will make the BCS look like a tea party.
These 19 teams all have a realistic shot at getting in the top four:
ACC: Clemson, Florida State
Big Ten: Michigan State, Ohio State, Iowa
Big 12: Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU
Pac-12: Stanford, Utah
SEC: Alabama, Florida, LSU, Ole Miss, Texas A&M
Independent: Notre Dame
AAC: Houston, Memphis
SEC Armageddon: In this season of parity, don't scoff at the possibility of a two-loss SEC champion. Alabama (6-1) isn't the powerhouse it used to be. LSU still has to go to Alabama and Ole Miss. All it might take is for the SEC East champion (Florida? Georgia?) to pull what looks from here to be a mild upset in the SEC title game.
What you've got to hope for is LSU or Alabama running the table. Don't discount Ole Miss reheating and winning the SEC at 11-2. Then what? Stay tuned.
Baylor could become the first team to score 100 touchdowns: It now seems likely with the Bears piling up 53 trip to the end zone at the halfway point. Include a bowl game and the nation's highest-scoring team is on track for 115 touchdowns.
Oklahoma in 2008 -- college football's modern single-season scoring leader -- posted 99 (in 14 games). Until that year, Nebraska was the record holder with 89 TDs in 1983 (12 games). College football is on a record scoring pace (30.15 points per team). Baylor's conference, the Big 12, is lapping that mark averaging 38.1 points per team.
Desmond Howard would be proud: Everyone knows Leonard Fournette is the prohibitive Heisman favorite. But behind him are a rash of receivers who could make history.
Only five pass catchers have ever won the trophy. Howard is the last in 1991. This season at the halfway point, 15 players are averaging 100 receiving yards per game.
Cases can be made for TCU's Josh Doctson (already 1,067 receiving yards) and Baylor's Corey Coleman (16 receiving touchdowns).
The have nots, Part I: The gap between the haves (Power Five) and have nots (Group of Five) has never been wider. Physically, financially and media-wise, those mid-major conferences are at a competitive disadvantage.
The CFP reserves an automatic major bowl berth for the best team among the Mountain West, American, Conference USA, MAC and Sun Belt, and the American is all but assured of grabbing that spot with three undefeated teams at the midway point -- Memphis, Houston and Temple. The three all play each other down stretch. Even a 12-1 champion from the American is going to look good in comparison to others in the Group of Five.
Memphis' Justin Fuente may be able to pick his next job after the season. The 39-year-old former Oklahoma quarterback is a program builder, having come from TCU in 2012 to take over program gone to seed. "There were not a lot of people on the team, there was not a lot of pride or a great work ethic," Fuente said. "Hopefully we've changed those things." Saturday's win over Ole Miss will go a long way toward changing things.
The have nots, Part II: The additional question for the American becomes: What if its champion is the only undefeated FBS champion? The Power Five champions are all guaranteed spots in the New Year's Six. The best of the Group of Five is also guaranteed one of those spots.
As for the playoff, consider that Memphis (6-0) has a chance to beat three ranked teams this season (Ole Miss, Houston, Temple). That would be one less than Florida (Ole Miss, LSU, Georgia, Florida State), which has already lost a game.
The American is an amalgamation of leftover Big East and Conference USA teams from the last round of conference realignment. "When we started, I make no bones about it," American commissioner Mike Aresco said. "We were in disarray. People had every right to be skeptical."
In its two-and-a-half-year existence, the American has won a basketball championship (UConn), a BCS bowl (UCF) and only the Big 12 currently has as many undefeated teams (three). Right now, that 12-team league is a respectable 7-11 against those five power conferences.
"The teams in the Group of Five undefeated right now would do well against the Power Five if given the opportunity," Central Florida coach George O'Leary said. Added the always-optimistic Aresco: "Our goals are first set on the playoff."
Midway data points: In addition to Fuente, watch for the likes of Willie Fritz (Georgia Southern), Tom Herman (Houston) and Dino Babers (Bowling Green) to get serious interest from Power Five schools after this season …
When speaking of the best quarterbacks in the country, please consider Western Kentucky's Brandon Doughty. The FBS's leading active career passer is No. 1 in accuracy (74 percent), No. 2 in passing yards and No. 4 in passing touchdowns. The Hilltoppers play LSU this week …
One reason for Temple's success? It is No. 2 nationally in Power Success Rate, a defensive metric that measures third and fourth down success when there are two yards or less to go …
As his current pace, Leonard Fournette would need 25 yards in a 14th game (bowl or playoff) to break Barry Sanders' single-season rushing record …
Baylor has scored 17 percent of the Big 12's 306 touchdowns …
Which way Bill Snyder? Saturday's margin of defeat vs. Oklahoma (55-0) was the worst for K-State since 1974, 15 years before he got the job.
