Championship Saturday: Playoff Breakdown & Chaos

CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY – What a night for college football fans around the nation! Whether your team was playing or not, this was a fantastic night to watch some football. The future of three teams’ chances for a bid to the playoffs are completely up in the air. Let's take a look. 

Big 10 | Cignetti and Co. On Top

Starting off with the Big 10 championship, we witnessed the ever-so poise Curt Cignetti lead his team to victory (13-10) over No. 1 Ohio State. In just two seasons, Cignetti has led this team to a playoff run and now an outright Big 10 championship for the first time since 1945. They also sit atop the rankings as the new number one team in the country, after taking down the reigning champions. 

What a game this turned out to be. Incredible defensive performances from both teams, but what stands out the most is how good Indiana’s run defense was. The Hoosiers defense only allowed 58 yards on the ground. This marks Ohio State’s lowest amount of rushing yards in a game since 2011. 

The MVP of the game, Fernando Mendoza, adding to his resume for the Heisman, threw for 222 yards, was 15/23, and had a touchdown. The former Cal Berkley starter has shaped himself into the Heisman favorite, and future NFL quarterback. 

After the game Mendoza stated, “I want to give all the glory to God. We were never supposed to be in this position, but by the glory of God, the great coaches, great teammates, and everybody we have around us, we were able to pull this off… But now the Hoosiers are flipping champs!” 

This Big 10 championship for the Hoosiers solidified their candidacy for the number one spot and their legitimacy as a team. Curt Cignetti, alongside Fernando Mendoza are well on their way to a national championship. 

SEC | The Tide Has Been Rolled

No. 3 Georgia and Kirby Smart finally take down No. 9 Alabama. Smart and his Bulldog teams have notoriously not been able to get past Alabama. This year is not the case, the Bulldogs under smart now move to 1-5 in the SEC championship with a decisive victory over the Tide (28-7). 

Gunner Stockton didn’t throw for many yards, but he was highly accurate when needed. He threw for 156 yards (20/26) and found himself three touchdowns. While four Bulldog rushers had 20 or more yards on the ground, with Nate Frazier leading the way with 52 yards and a touchdown. 

On the other side of the field, Ty Simpson threw for 212 yards (19/39) with only one touchdown. The Tide’s ground game was abysmal. Notre Dame and Miami’s ground offenses were both better than the Tide’s today. The Tide came out netting -3 total rushing yards… hard to win when you are putting up negative yards. 

The Bulldogs had complete control of this game, and they are going to be owning one of the first round byes with this dominant win. 

Big 12 | Texas Tech Tarnishes Hope of BYU 

Coming into this game, BYU stood tall at the number 11th spot. A win here, or a solid performance could be the deciding factor of the Cougar’s chances in the CFB playoffs. Well we did not see that, as the game was an immense blowout. The Red Raiders cruised to victory winning 34-7. 

Bear Bachmeier threw for a mere 115 yards with two interceptions. While Behren Morton, of Tech, threw for 215 yards with two touchdowns. 

J’Koby Williams rushed for 80 yards on 15 carries for the Red Raiders. Cameron Dickey of the Red Raiders complemented Williams’s performance with 72 yards on 18 carries with a touchdown.

Texas Tech has established themselves as a powerhouse and will more than likely receive a first round bye in the 2026 College Football Playoffs. 

ACC | Duke Shakes Up The Playoffs With Upset Win

In an overtime thriller, 7-5 Duke Blue Devils took on 10-2 and No. 17th ranked Virginia. A clear favorite for Virginia and with a win they’d find themselves in the playoffs. Yet the Blue Devils took them into overtime and secured a victory with a fourth down conversion for a touchdown, and a game-closing interception. 

Darian Mensah of the Blue Devils threw for 196 yards with two touchdowns. While Chandler Morris of the Virginia Cavaliers threw for 216 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. 

What does this do to the playoffs? In the 12-team format, the 11th and 12th spots go to the highest-ranked conference champions. With Duke capturing the ACC title sitting at 8-5 now, they do sit as one of the two highest conference champions left. This will result in No. 20 Tulane landing the 11th spot and No. 25 JMU sneaking their way into the College Football playoffs. 

With a win from the No. 17 Cavaliers, they would’ve found themselves in this year’s College Football playoffs. 

Alabama? Miami? Notre Dame?

With Alabama’s loss to Georgia in the SEC championship today they have now lost their third game of the season. This puts the committee in another tough decision of how do you rank Miami, Notre Dame, and Alabama. Only two will get in… who’s the team that will stay in the bubble this playoff season? 

Alabama has a slight buffer as the committee moved them up to the No. 9 spot last week, and put Notre Dame at the No. 10 spot. With BYU’s loss, we can now assume Miami at the very least moves into that No. 11 spot and it makes you wonder if the committee will finally honor the head to head that took place on Labor day weekend. A game in which the Canes took down the Fighting Irish. 

The question within the committee will be, where do they slot Alabama and Notre Dame? From there on, once they decide if Alabama stays at the No. 9 spot or moves back to the 10th spot, then they can compare that 10th slot to newly assumed No. 11 Miami. Both teams Miami has an argument that they should move past either team. 

If Notre Dame is slotted at the No. 10 spot, the committee should now have to enforce the head to head. If Notre Dame walks into the playoffs over Miami it would stain the criteria list for college football for years. Why play the games, if the head to head isn’t weighed? Especially in a situation like this, where both teams are essentially equal in every stat. Which if we really want to start nitpicking, Miami has better stats to back up their resume. 

Miami is 1-0 versus current top-25 opponents, Notre Dame is 1-2

Miami has outscored 3 out of 4 common opponents between the Canes and the Fighting Irish

Miami holds the head to head

At the end of the day, Miami belongs in the playoffs no matter how you shape it. Alabama has fought against a tough SEC schedule, but surrendering their third loss should be the nail in the coffin for the Tide. But will it? 

We’ve heard the argument from Hunter Yurachek, College Football Playoff committee chair, has heavily relied on the consistency and progress of play from teams throughout the year to weigh a team’s strength. In this case, the last month of football from the Tide has been sloppy and poor… especially in SEC terms. 

Dating back to October 25 here is their last 6 games:

7 point win over unranked South Carolina (29-22)

11 point win over unranked LSU (20-9)

2 point loss to No. 8 Oklahoma (21-23)

56 point win over unranked Eastern Illinois (56-0)

7 point win over 5-6 unranked Auburn (27-20)

21 point loss to No. 3 Georgia (28-7)

If the committee wants to play the “consistency and overall progression of a team” card with the next set of rankings, there is no reason Alabama should make the playoffs. Unlike Miami and Notre Dame who have been blowing out common opponents, Alabama has been merely edging out their opponents (minus Eastern Illinois) and has two losses in the past 25 days. 

In the end, I believe Miami and Notre Dame should both make the playoffs and Alabama should be left out. With all the talent from Notre Dame and Canes, you can not leave out either team for a 3 loss downward-spiraling team in Alabama. 

My Projection of the Final 12:

1. Indiana 

2. Ohio State 

3. Georgia 

4. Texas Tech 

5. Oregon 

6. Texas A&M 

7. Ole Miss

8. Oklahoma 

9. Miami 

10. Notre Dame

11. Tulane 

12. JMU