It's been an unpredictable and exciting college football season, and with the start of the College Football Playoff this weekend, it's now coming to a close.
The first-round slate, with four games spread over Friday and Saturday, seems to be set up for two tight games and two blowouts. But this is the playoffs and anything can happen, especially when one heavy favorite is missing its head coach.
Here's a preview for each game:
No. 9 Alabama (10-3) vs. No. 8 Oklahoma (10-2): Friday, 8:00 p.m. ET
This is the marquee matchup of the first round. It doesn't get much more "college football" than Alabama versus Oklahoma, with 25 national championships and 11 Heisman Trophy winners between them.
These two teams faced off just a month ago in Tuscaloosa. Oklahoma's defense won the day for the Sooners, with 17 points scored off three turnovers in a game they won 23-21. The Sooners' offense, by contrast, was anemic: quarterback John Mateer completed just 15 passes for 138 yards, and no offensive play went for more than 22 yards. Alabama's turnovers and special teams' slip-ups cost them the victory, despite their much more efficient offense.
Now, the Crimson Tide is coming off a humbling 28-7 rout in the SEC championship game against Georgia ("certainly not our best performance," said quarterback Ty Simpson this week), and they have more injured players sitting out than any other first-round team. Oklahoma isn't totally healthy, either; Mateer has been dealing with a thumb injury for most of the season that has limited his passing capabilities.
The winner will be rewarded with a New Year's Day visit to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. to face the undefeated Indiana Hoosiers and their newly minted Heisman-winning quarterback, Fernando Mendoza.
No. 10 Miami (10-2) vs. No. 7 Texas A&M (11-1): Saturday, noon ET
Texas A&M was cruising for a chance at the SEC title (and a first-round bye in the playoff) when rival Texas tripped them up late last month. Now, they're on upset alert against No. 10 Miami, who looked impressive this season in huge wins over ranked opponents like Pitt and South Florida. They also won a much-discussed first-week matchup against Notre Dame — a win that ultimately got them into the playoff.
This one could come down to defense, too. Quarterbacks Carson Beck (Miami) and Marcel Reed (A&M) have each thrown 10 interceptions this season. And both teams have star defensive linemen — Rueben Bain for Miami, and Cashius Howell for A&M — who each have the capability to wreck his opponent's passing game.
The superlative Miami freshman wide receiver Malachi Toney could be a wild card, as could the atmosphere at Texas A&M's historic Kyle Field. It's a sellout with an expected capacity crowd of 102,000-plus people yelling and hissing and rocking to and fro. "I know the 12th Man is going to show up for us," Aggies linebacker Daymion Sanford said this week. "Playing in the away games, it's not like here. There's nothing compared to Kyle Field."
These are two talented squads, and it's shaping up to be a close game. The winner will face No. 2 Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Eve.
No. 11 Tulane (11-2) vs. No. 6 Ole Miss (11-1): Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET
This is perhaps the topsy-turviest game of all. Tulane, a small-time football program with big playoff dreams, was once a founding member of the SEC, now the most dominant conference in football. But the school left the conference in the 1960s as its academic ambitions and football capabilities diverged.
Now, the Green Wave is back in the national spotlight after winning just its third conference title in 75 years (!). This season, under the steerage of rising star head coach Jon Sumrall and transfer quarterback Jake Retzlaff, Tulane soared to an 11-2 record, with wins over big-conference teams like Northwestern and Duke. (Sumrall will soon leave Tulane to become the head coach at Florida, but he's staying on to coach his team through the playoff.)
But their worst loss of the season came to none other than Ole Miss, which walloped the Wave 45-10 in September. The Rebels are big favorites again this time.
Don't count the Green Wave out just yet, though. Ole Miss is a program in a state of chaos after head coach Lane Kiffin announced he'd accepted the job at LSU. Like Sumrall, Kiffin offered to stay on to coach the Rebels in the postseason, but the school declined — there are hard feelings, it turns out, when you depart for an in-conference rival. Instead, defensive coordinator Pete Golding got the top job and will make his career debut as head coach in Saturday's playoff game. (When a reporter asked this week if Golding had yet had any moment to savor the promotion, Golding replied, "To be honest with you, no, and I really don't plan to.")
The winner will face No. 3 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day.
No. 12 James Madison (12-1) vs. No. 5 Oregon (11-1): Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET
When the 12-team playoff format was introduced, there was much debate over how much room — if any — should be reserved for small-conference teams. In the end, one spot was enough, the powers that be decided: The nation's five highest-ranked conference champions would be automatically granted a spot in the playoff.
Of course, that assumed that four of those five would come from the sport's four "power conferences," i.e. the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC. This year turned that assumption on its head. A messy, five-way tie in the ACC led to a mediocre 8-5 Duke team as conference champion.
Duke didn't deserve a playoff spot — there was no debate there. But the rules require five champions. So, instead, the playoff features two small-conference teams, with James Madison sneaking in as the No. 12 seed.
JMU is the biggest underdog of the playoff, with its opponent, No. 5 Oregon, favored by three touchdowns. A loss that big — or bigger — could tilt future playoff consideration away from small-conference teams. Speaking to reporters this week, head coach Bob Chesney (who, like Sumrall, is leaving after the playoff for a new job at UCLA) alluded to that pressure. "There's a lot of people that are proud that there's two of us in here. And there's a lot of people that got our backs — and want and need us to do really, really well, which we will," Chesney said.
Now, the Dukes must face the Ducks, whose 20-year-old quarterback Dante Moore has had a breakout season. He impressed in close games against Penn State and Iowa, and Oregon's only loss hinged on a pair of late-game interceptions.
The winner will face No. 4 seed Texas Tech on New Year's Day in the Orange Bowl.
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