Should USC be in the mix to make the College Football Playoff? | Yahoo Sports College Podcast
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss USC’s chances to make the 2020 College Football Playoff, and if not USC, which other teams have good arguments to be the last team in.
Video Transcript
DAN WETZEL: What do you do with USC, which could end up 6-0? Can you just dismiss USC and say, well, you guys aren't good enough but Ohio State is because we're going by the eye test? If you're going by the math test then Coastal Carolina should be in this mix. Coastal Carolina has more wins, undefeated, they're playing in a championship game next week.
The two best non-conference victories of the entire season are playing each other, Louisiana, 17-point win at Iowa State, and Coastal Carolina's against BYU. So those are the two best non-conference victories of the entire year and they're playing each other next week in a championship game and they're not in the mix. So when you don't put them in the mix, you say, this is not a math problem. This is an eye test, Rivals.com recruiting ranking, you know, logo question. Well--
PAT FORDE: Right.
DAN WETZEL: --guess what? USC has good players. They have good recruits and they got a hell of a uniform. I mean, shouldn't they be in this mix?
PAT FORDE: USC is fascinating to me because, A, they're undefeated and B, they do have the cachet of being USC. But holy cow, I mean, it's unbelievable the way they have-- they have pulled out three games in the last minute out of their five. Their original schedule this year, they were going to play Alabama, Oregon, Notre Dame. Those games all disappeared, were replaced by, you know, a selection of turnips, and now they're going to play Washington in the Pac-12 championship game, and Washington's like, what, 3-1? I mean, it's just really, really hard to look at USC and say, ah, that team should be in the playoff.
PETE THAMEL: Yeah. We're going to look back at history and be like, how did Clay Helton last that long as USC's coach? The interesting thing now is, like, they've actually surrounded Helton with the best staff that he's had there and certainly the best recruiting that they've had there. I think they have nine ESPN top 300 commitments. Graham Harrell's been an upgrade from what they've had. Todd Orlando's a big upgrade from Clancy Pendergast, who was an awful defensive coordinator.
All that said, like, there is nothing about USC that screams elite. They have no wins over top 25 teams. They have had some wonderful late game moments and some nice comebacks, but at least Ohio State has that Indiana win. Like, at least there is something you can hang their hat on, like, and say, OK, they went up against a legitimate top 15 team who was healthy who had their star quarterback and beat them. Now they barely beat them, but they beat them.
But I just-- again, is it eye test? Like why don't I think USC has a playoff argument? I've just-- I've watched 'em. They don't look like they're in the same ballpark as these other teams. And this is why, from the beginning, I wrote the Pac-12 had no chance. Because they just-- the Pac-12 isn't good enough to give itself the forum to get in the conversation, and they don't have the amount of games to get in the conversation. So here they are.
So USC was 15. Maybe they get to eight or nine. Like, you have to start looking at them against Iowa State being like, OK, they probably have better wins than Iowa State. I think Cincinnati is a better team than USC, and I think they've proven it.
PAT FORDE: Yeah.
DAN WETZEL: Cincinnati's got--
PAT FORDE: No doubt.
PETE THAMEL: --multiple wins over ranked teams. They have a chance to get a third this week. And I think if anyone has really been helped by this little Florida shake-up, mini-chaos that we've had, I think it makes Cincinnati's argument stronger. I really think you need to reframe the Cincinnati argument. And if they beat Tulsa, that's a better win than a lot of the people ahead of them have. And they have two other ranked wins over a really good Army team, who was ranked at the time because the AP poll is a little light, I will acknowledge that. And then they thumped SMU, who at the time was very good and has faded off a little bit.
But, I don't know. Pound for pound Cincinnati has just mauled everybody this year too. Like, that's why I would take 'em over USC. Like they have mauled everybody that they played. They had one struggle but they've been consistently dominant.