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Florida State (ACC), Michigan (Big Ten) and Washington (PAC-12) all won their respective conference championship games and finished undefeated to likely lay claim to 3 of the 4 College Football Playoff spots. The question is which 1-loss team gets the 4th spot - an Alabama team that knocked off Georgia 27-24 for the SEC title, a Georgia team that lost to Alabama, a Texas team that annihilated Oklahoma State 49-21 for the Big 12 title and won at Alabama earlier in the year, or an Ohio State team that didn't play in its conference title contest after losing to Michigan.
We'll find out for sure on Sunday when the field is revealed at 12:15 p.m. on ESPN.
Fans will have to wait until 2:30 to get the New Year's Six selections with most of the other bowls having to wait to make their announcements.
The Group of 5 automatic entry to one of those New Year's Six bowls was also thrown into a bit of uncertainty by SMU's 26-14 win at Tulane. Combined with Miami, Ohio's upset of Toledo, it boils down to either undefeated Liberty (13-0), or SMU (11-2). Our heads say you go with the unbeaten Flames, because undefeated is hard to do as evidenced by the fact that only 4 FBS teams and just 1 FCS school are left unscathed. That's a total of 4 teams out of 261.
That's a reason we don't think Florida State will be left out of the Final 4 and will likely be seeded 3rd, behind Michigan and Washington. That leaves Texas jumping 'Bama and Georgia for the 4th and final spot, shutting out the SEC which is, yes, a bit jaw-dropping. The one knock on Texas could be the Big 12 title game itself, which the Longhorns won against an Oklahoma State team that finished 9-4, but Texas won that game handily. An argument could be made to put Texas at 3 and FSU at 4.
Here's a brief recap of what took place on Friday and Saturday.
CUSA - Liberty 49, New Mexico State 35 (at Liberty) - A sold out Williams Stadium in Lynchburg saw the home team Flames finish 13-0 with the win over New Mexico State (10-4) in Lynchburg, Virginia. Liberty pulled away in the fourth quarter behind the game’s Most Valuable Player, QB Kaidon Salter, who finished 20-25 for 319 yards with two passing touchdowns and no interceptions, while also leading the Flames in rushing with 12 carries for 165 yards and another touchdown in the win. Liberty, the only 13-0 G5 champion, recorded all 13 wins over FBS competition. Six of those wins have come against bowl-eligible opponents, including a pair over the 10-win Aggies. The Flames have beaten those opponents handily, winning those games by an average of 16.5 points per game.
PAC-12 - Washington 34, Oregon 31 (at Las Vegas) - Another 3-point epic battle with the same team prevailing. Washington (13-0) won 36-33 over in Seattle in the regular season, and took round 2 with a 34-31 decision over Oregon (11-2) in Vegas. Michael Penix Jr. was named the game's Most Valuable Player after throwing for 319 yards, one touchdown and one interception to lead the UW offense. Oregon quarterback Bo Nix finished with 239 passing yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
BIG 12 - Texas 49, Oklahoma State 21 (at Arlington) - Texas (12-1) won going away as Quinn Ewers lit up the house, throwing for 452 yards with four first-half touchdowns to four different receivers - Adonai Mitchell, Jaydon Blue, and 362-pound defensive tackle T'Vondre Sweat. The Cowboys fell to 9-4.
MAC - Miami (O.) 23, Toledo 14 (at Detroit) - Rashad Amos ran for two touchdowns and Aveon Smith added 208 all-purpose yards, Meanwhile, Austin Ertl blocked a pair of kicks while Graham Nicholson converted three field goals for the RedHawks (11-2), who won their 17th MAC title and first since 2019. Dequan Finn threw for 273 yards to lead the Rockets (11-2), who saw their 11-game win streak snapped and their hopes of landing the automatic New Year's Six bowl bid fall by the wayside.
MWC - Boise State 44, UNLV 20 (at UNLV) - The script was not easy for Boise State (8-5). Fire your head coach while you're mired at 5-5, then win 3 straight while grabbing the Mountain West title with a convincing win at UNLV (9-4).
SEC - Alabama 27, Georgia 24 (at Atlanta) - Alabama's (12-1) upset of Georgia (12-1) could bite the SEC in the butt and leave the conference without a playoff representative, even though both teams are clearly qualified.
AAC - SMU 26, Tulane 14 (at Tulane) - SMU (11-2) upset Tulane (11-2) to knock the Green Wave out of contention for the automatic G5 bid to a New Year's Six bowl game, and possibly put itself in the hunt. The Mustangs won their first conference title since 1984 with backup freshman QB Kevin Jennings throwing for 203 yards and a score, and running for running for 63 yards. But this was mostly about SMU's defense which limited Tulane to just 12 first downs and 269 total yards. The Mustangs are off to the ACC next season.
SUN BELT - Troy 49, Appalachian State 23 (at Troy) - Troy's defense of its Sun Belt title was led junior RB Kimani Vidal's 233 yards and 5 TD's on 26 carries. No road team has ever won the Sun Belt title.
B1G - Michigan 26, Iowa 0 (at Indianapolis) - As expected, Iowa's lack of offense was its downfall from the beginning and Michigan ran its record to 13-0 with the shutout while the Hawkeyes dropped to 10-3.
ACC - Florida State 16, Louisville 6 (at Charlotte) - Third string freshman QB Brock Glenn was ineffective after Jordan Travis was lost for the year in the next-to-last game of the regular season, and Tate Rodemaker was left in concussion protocol after a hit he sustained the following week against Florida. But the Florida State (13-0) defense kept Louisville (10-3) from getting on-track, despite having its season-long starting QB and a feared rushing attack. The 16-6 victory was giving pundits plenty to say negatively, even throughout the broadcast of the game itself by Joe Tessitore and Jessie Palmer who almost forgot to actually call the game they were watching.
This season had 117 of the 133 FBS schools facing one FCS opponent, and Army played two such games for a total of 118 FBS-FCS matchups.
Of the 16 FBS schools that did NOT play a FCS program, 7 were in the B1G (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin). 6 more are evenly split between the Big 12 (Houston, Oklahoma, Texas) and Pac-12 (Colorado, USC, Washington). The other three were Liberty (CUSA) , UTSA (American), and Virginia Tech (ACC).
The FBS programs were 114-4 this year against the FCS schools. Over-all, the FBS is a collective 1,800-152 (.922) since we began tracking this in 2003.
Here are the FCS wins in 2023, so far:
September 9: Idaho 33, Nevada 6
September 9: Southern Illinois 14, Northern Illinois 12
September 9: Fordham 40, Buffalo 37
September 16: Sacramento State 30, Stanford 23
GEORGIA - Had Won 29 straight over-all. Has won 25 straight home games, and 15 straight true road games.
Last: Lost 27-24 to Alabama in SEC Championship game in Atlanta on Saturday, December 2
Next: Awaits playoff fate, bowl destination
WASHINGTON - Won 20 straight over-all
Last: 34-31 win over Oregon in PAC-12 Championship game in Las Vegas on Friday, December 1.
Next: Awaits playoff fate, bowl destination
MICHIGAN - Won 24 straight conference games.
Last: 30-24 home win over Ohio State on Saturday, November 25
Next: Iowa in B1G Championship in Indianapolis on Saturday, December 2
VANDERBILT - Lost 10 straight over-all.
Last: 48-24 loss at Tennessee on Saturday, November 25.
Next: Season complete
STANFORD - Lost 9 straight home games.
Last: 56-23 home loss to Notre Dame on Saturday, November 25
Next: Season complete
TEMPLE - Lost 14 straight true road games.
Last: 45-21 home loss to Memphis on Saturday, November 25
Next: Season complete
ULM - Lost 10 straight over-all, lost 10 straight conference games.
Last: 52-21 loss at Louisiana on Saturday, November 25
Next: Season complete