As a prepubescent growing up in tiny Hartshorne, Oklahoma, nothing sent shivers down my skin more than hearing classmates were angling for a good game of dodgeball at recess.
No, it wasn’t the possibility of getting drilled by a ball that scared me. Hell, I was absolutely blasted by a near-supersonic sphere while covering a Kansas/Texas Tech volleyball match in 2001, yet lived to tell the tale.
Instead, it was the fear of not being picked. As chosen players’ names rolled off the tongues of team captains, I didn’t want to be one of the losers left standing at the end, unwanted by everyone.
Inevitably, I never was. Sure, it may have had more to do with my close friendships with the team captains than my athletic prowess, but I managed to be a part of the “in crowd.”
It’s a feeling I think all of Sooner Nation has suffered with the past few weeks. After beating Alabama in mid-November and pushing themselves into the projected playoff field, it seemed the overriding question among fans was whether the Sooners could hang on and remain part of college football’s “in crowd.”
Well, after an unnecessarily long warm-up, the brackets were finally revealed this morning, with OU comfortably within the field as the eighth seed. When the first round of the playoff begins in two weeks, the Sooners will face a rematch with their crimson-clad kin, ninth-seeded Alabama, in Norman. Expect the Sporting Press to spend the next 10 days breaking down how the OU-Alabama rematch will and will not look like the Nov. 15 game where OU squeaked out a win 23-21.
Joining OU and Alabama in the playoff will be:
- No. 1 Indiana,
- No. 2 Ohio State,
- No. 3 Georgia,
- No. 4 Texas Tech,
- No. 5 Oregon,
- No. 6 Ole Miss,
- No. 7 Texas A&M,
- No. 10 Miami,
- No. 11 Tulane, and
- No. 12 James Madison.
Notable owing to their absences are Duke, Vanderbilt, Texas and, most interestingly, Notre Dame. The College Football Playoff Committee finally saw fit to acknowledge Miami’s win over Notre Dame back during the first major weekend of the season and adjusted its ranking accordingly.
Better late than never, I guess.
There might be some angst about OU having to match up again with an Alabama team the Sooners snuck past last month. From my vantage point, however, it seems the Crimson Tide have sprung a leak since then, struggling past Auburn and then getting hammered by Georgia this weekend in the SEC Championship Game.
Regardless of the matchup and circumstances, however, the Sooners and all their fans should be happy to be in the playoff field … period. Simply ask Longhorn and Fighting Irish fans how they feel right now. I’m certain they’ll agree it sucks not to be part of the “in crowd.”
So in honor of their existential hangovers, let’s get to the hangover highlights, conference-championship-week edition:
- Indiana beat Ohio State, 13-10, for the first time since 1987 and won the Big 10 title for the first time since 1967. That’s a lot of “since” in one sentence.
- Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza was the standout, at least in my eyes. While his stats were modest — 222 passing yards with a touchdown and an interception, and negative-three rushing yards — his gutsy playmaking and throws down the stretch labeled him a legit Heisman candidate.
- The Hoosiers will be the top seed in this year’s playoffs, which is unheard of for a program with almost 700 losses in its history. This tweet from @NoEscalators might be more true than anyone would care to admit: “Indiana was the worst team in college football for 150 years and then they let teams start paying players and they immediately became No. 1 and the only conclusion to draw is they were the only ones who didn’t realize you could pay players under the table for the first 150 years.”
- Jokes aside, much has been made of Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti’s turnabout of the program, and nearly all of it is deserved. The one accolade I’ll withhold is the idea that his two years with the Hoosiers constitutes “the best coaching job of all time.” I still believe that particular title belongs to former Kansas State boss Bill Snyder, who turned the woebegone Wildcats into perennial conference contenders. Most importantly, Snyder did it without the aid of NIL funds or the transfer portal.
- Georgia unleashed some pent-up fury against Alabama in a 28-7 SEC Championship Game victory. ’Bama defeated Georgia earlier in the season but was held to an astounding negative-seven rushing yards Saturday by the Bulldogs.
- Georgia’s defense had ups and down this season, as it allowed 41 points to Tennessee and 35 points to Ole Miss, but it looked like a traditionally dominant Bulldog D on Saturday. ’Bama simply couldn’t unstick the plow offensively as its rushing game was, technically and literally, LESS than nonexistent.
- Georgia will take the third seed in the College Football Playoff, and deservedly so, as it seems to be peaking at the right time. As for the Crimson Tide, it seems they’re an incredibly talented bunch still searching for an identity on both sides of the ball, something the Sooners better hope they don’t find by Dec. 19.
- Texas Tech fought past a determined BYU team in the Big 12 Championship Game, 34-7. BYU actually scored the first points of the day, courtesy a 14-play, 90-yard drive in the first quarter.
- From then on, it was all Tech … although not easily. Despite the disparity of the final score, the Red Raiders led just 13-7 late in the third quarter.
- The win cruises Tech into the playoff and gives the Red Raiders their first outright conference title in 70 years back when they won the Border Conference. All it took for Texas Tech to win the Big 12 so was a billionaire dropping an unheard of amount of funds into the program and for Oklahoma and Texas — against which Tech has a combined 25-77 record — to leave the conference.
- The Eric Morris eras ended and began on a sour note at North Texas and Oklahoma State, respectively. Morris’ UNT squad was downed by Tulane on Friday night, 34-21, in the American Conference Championship Game — a contest not near as close as even the final score.
- The Mean Green trailed 24-7 at halftime and 31-7 midway through the third quarter before finally getting its renowned offense on track. By then, it was much too late.
- Morris, who accepted the Oklahoma State head coaching position a couple of weeks ago, had hoped to continue coaching North Texas through a possible College Football Playoff run. Now, with two resounding losses in his team’s only games against ranked opponents this season — UNT fell 63-36 to South Florida in early October — he slinks off to Stillwater with a dent in his reputation.
- The AC title bout was a de-facto play-in contest for the College Football Playoff, as the winner was all but certain to land in the field. Landing as the 11th seed, Tulane is a worthy inclusion as the “group of five” participant, with its 12-2 record, a win over ACC champion Duke, and now North Texas. Plus, one of its losses came to fellow CFP participant Ole Miss.
- Of course, the CFP committee must have remembered that game when arranging a rematch in the playoff’s first round. As the sixth-seed, Ole Miss will be favored against the Green Wave, but the Lane Kiffin-induced hangover of a lifetime could leave the Rebels washed out to sea.
- The aforementioned Duke seemingly put a stake in the heart of its own Atlantic Coast Conference with a 27-20 win against Virginia in the ACC title game. The Dukies came into the game with a mediocre 7-5 record, but only two of those losses came during ACC play.
- But while the win over the 17th-ranked Cavaliers seemed to doom the ACC to non-playoff purgatory, the committee pulled its chestnuts from the fire by choosing 10-2 Miami over 10-2 Notre Dame. In retrospect, maybe that seems like an obvious decision considering the Hurricanes beat the Fighting Irish 27-24 on Aug. 31. That game was decided by a Miami field goal with 1:04 remaining, so it’s too bad another rematch wasn’t possible for the playoff.
- Instead, spectators will see TWO mid-majors in the field, with Tulane being joined by Sun Belt Conference champion James Madison. The Dukes — who sport the Duke Dog as their mascot — finally put down a tough Troy squad in a 31-14 conference championship game victory. I don’t know what to think of JMU because, unlike Tulane, they really haven’t played anyone of note outside of a loss at Louisville back in September.
- While I think JMU will lose, rather badly, to Oregon in their playoff matchup, I think it’ll still be fun to see Dukes quarterback Alonza Barnett III and running back Wayne Knight on a national stage. Both are good enough players to compete in any conference, and they deserve the spotlight.
- After a convoluted tiebreaker involving computers, the Mountain West Championship Game pitted Boise State and UNLV together for the THIRD-straight season. It unfolded the same as the previous two iterations, as the Broncos emerged with a 38-21 win.
- Unlike last year when the Group of Five’s playoff berth was on the line for Boise, only the opportunity to keep their streak of conference titles alive was at stake for the Broncos on Saturday. Although, some could argue Boise’s ability to convince the Mountain West computers it deserved a spot in the championship after finishing in a four-way tie for second place was more impressive.
- Meanwhile, Western Michigan toppled Miami (Ohio) for the Mid-American Conference title. I admit, the MAC has weirdly been off my radar all season. Other than Pudge the Cat roaming around in northern Ohio, I’ve only been vaguely aware of the conference this season. Weird.
- Kennesaw State came from behind to defeat Jacksonville State, 19-15, in the Conference USA Championship Game. The most noteworthy aspect of the Owls winning involves their 10-3 record flipping the script from a year ago when they finished 2-10. Perhaps most interestingly, last year’s Kennesaw State squad lost THREE of its better players to OU in the transfer portal, none of whom made a significant impact for the Sooners this season.
- Finally, a quick thought as we head into next week’s Heisman Trophy ceremony, where my broseph, Diego Pavia — without even having to petition President Trump for the honor — is one of the finalists:
- ¡Vaya, Diego, vaya!
(Correction: This article was updated at 1:50 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, to correcta reference to Georgia’s seed.)
