Winners and Losers Week 11: An eight-team playoff would be really fun this year

This season would be perfect for an eight-team College Football Playoff.

Calling for the playoff to expand from four teams to eight is nothing new. Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel, among others, has done that. But as we’re now 11 weeks through the 2018 regular season, it’s becoming even more fun to envision how an eight-team playoff would work out pretty seamlessly.

Tuesday’s playoff rankings will look a lot like they did a week ago. Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame and Michigan will probably be in the top four. Georgia, Oklahoma, LSU and Washington State will follow. West Virginia and Ohio State will round out the top 10.

If an eight-team playoff was in place it would likely include five conference champions and three wild-card teams. And guess what? The probable top eight includes teams leading all the Power Five conferences and three wild-card teams in the form of Notre Dame, Georgia and LSU.

West Virginia could replace Oklahoma in that grouping by the end of the season, Ohio State could beat Michigan in two weeks and Washington State could drop out. Or, if you want to get crazy, you could argue that UCF deserves to be included in an eight-team playoff at the expense of LSU.

UCF’s inclusion aside, just think of how fun a playoff like this would look:

No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 8 Washington State

Mike Leach vs. Nick Saban? This would be worth it just to see the coaches side-by-side at a news conference.

No. 2 Clemson vs. No. 7 LSU

The two Tiger defenses on the same field would be fun.

No. 3 Notre Dame vs. No. 6 Oklahoma/West Virginia

Notre Dame’s defense would have its hands full with the Big 12 champion.

No. 4 Michigan/Ohio State vs. No. 5 Georgia

Harbaugh or Meyer vs. Smart for the right to potentially play Saban in the second round is full of intrigue.

Who says no to that?

If you’re not convinced that an eight-team playoff would be perfect for this season, here’s another point: If everything goes as expected for the rest of the season, there wouldn’t be any team left out of the bracket that would have a rightful claim for a shot at the title.

While Alabama, Clemson, and Notre Dame have proven themselves better than the rest of the country through the first 11 weeks, the gulf between the top 10 teams and the rest of college football is far bigger than the gap between the top three and Nos. 4-10.

How so? No. 11 Kentucky followed a devastating loss to Georgia with a defeat at Tennessee. The Wildcats have been exposed as a one-dimensional offensive threat over the last two weeks. While UK is far from a fraud, it’s safe to say Kentucky isn’t a top-10 team.

No. 12 UCF has a great shot to go undefeated but is in a conference that doesn’t have any other top-25 teams. While Cincinnati is now a surprise 9-1, Houston and South Florida have each lost two straight games.

No. 14 NC State lost at home to Wake Forest on Thursday night, letting the Demon Deacons score 14 straight fourth-quarter points. Oh, Wake Forest quarterback Jamie Newman was also making his first career start. Very good teams don’t let that happen on senior night.

No. 15 Florida needed a furious comeback led by a home crowd-shushing quarterback to beat an average South Carolina team in The Swamp on Saturday. And No. 16 Mississippi State was shut out by the Crimson Tide in a 24-0 game that was only close because Mississippi State’s defense made Alabama work.

The only team just outside the top 10 that looked remotely impressive was No. 13 Syracuse, who beat up on everyone’s favorite chew toy Louisville on Friday night to move to 8-2. The Orange should be No. 11 on Tuesday. Which is both a compliment to the football being played by Dino Babers’ squad and further proof for this point that we spent five paragraphs making.

Look, we realize the playoff isn’t expanding to eight teams anytime soon. But it’s fun to dream about, especially in a year like this. With an Alabama-Clemson title game as much of a foregone conclusion as possible on Nov. 10, you can’t blame us for wanting an extra round of playoff games to enjoy before the inevitable happens.

Here are this week’s winners and losers.

Winners

Northwestern: Northwestern is headed to the Big Ten title game for the first time. With its 14-10 win over Iowa in Iowa City (and thanks to losses by Wisconsin and Purdue), the Wildcats clinched their first division title in program history. Northwestern started the year 1-3, including a loss to Akron, but has since won five of its last six games. The Wildcats are also 6-1 in Big Ten play with their only loss coming by just three points to Michigan. On Saturday, the winning touchdown was this awesome diving catch by Bennett Skowronek.

And once the final whistle sounded, Pat Fitzgerald gathered his players to let them know the good news.

Pittsburgh: Pitt took another step toward its first ACC Coastal title, and did so in emphatic fashion. The Panthers destroyed Virginia Tech 52-22, rushing for a ridiculous 492 yards in the process. Qadree Ollison led the way with 235 yards and three TDs with Darrin Hall adding 186 yards and a score on just seven carries. Overall, Pitt had a school-record 654 total yards. With a win over Wake Forest next week, Pitt will clinch the division title and a date with Clemson in the ACC title game.

Notre Dame: Notre Dame was just fine without Ian Book. With Book sidelined with a rib injury, Notre Dame went back to Week 1 starter Brandon Wimbush and dominated Florida State, 42-13. Wimbush’s accuracy issues were still there (12 of 25 passing), so the Irish relied on Dexter Williams to carry the load. He delivered with 202 yards and two scores. Wimbush did throw for three touchdown passes and added 68 rushing yards in the winning effort. The Irish improved to 10-0 and could get Book back next week against No. 13 Syracuse at Yankee Stadium.

Utah: It was a rough week for Utah. The Utes lost QB Tyler Huntley and RB Zack Moss to serious injuries, but were still able to pull out a 32-25 home win over Oregon. In his first career start in place of Huntley, Jason Shelley threw for 262 yards and had two rushing scores while Armand Shyne, Moss’ backup, rushed for 174 yards. The Utes improved to 7-3 (5-3 Pac-12) with the win and maintained sole possession of first place in the Pac-12 South. Utah has never won the South.

Tennessee: The Vols upset No. 11 Kentucky on Saturday at home, 24-7. Tennessee limited the Wildcats to just 77 rushing yards in the win while rushing for 215 yards of its own. The Vols broke the game open with two touchdowns in the last three minutes of the first half, including a 39-yard Hail Mary as time expired. The win improved the Vols to 5-5 in Jeremy Pruitt’s first year on the job. The Vols can clinch a bowl berth with a win over either Missouri or Vanderbilt in the final two weeks of the season. Pruitt has the program heading in the right direction.

Boise State: Boise State is still fighting for a place in the Mountain West title game. The Broncos were home underdogs vs. No. 23 Fresno State on Friday night but overcame a 17-3 third-quarter deficit to upset the Bulldogs 24-17. Now 8-2 (5-1 MWC), the Broncos will have a chance to beat Utah State (9-1, 6-0) for the Mountain Division crown as long as Boise doesn’t lose to New Mexico next week.

Daniel Jones, QB, Duke: Duke beat rival North Carolina for the third straight season thanks to a remarkable effort from QB Daniel Jones. Jones had a program-record 547 total yards — 361 passing yards and 186 rushing yards — in a 42-35 win. Jones threw three touchdown passes and also reeled off a 61-yard TD run. Duke is now 7-3 on the season.

UAB: The revived program is heading to the Conference USA championship game. UAB moved to 9-1 with a 26-23 win over Southern Miss on Saturday. UAB didn’t have football in 2015 and 2016 after the school got rid of it and the program returned with an 8-5 season in 2017. Things have gotten better in 2018 and coach Bill Clark deserves serious consideration for any and all coach of the year awards.

RyQuell Armstead, RB, Temple: Temple beat Houston on the road in a shootout on Saturday, 59-49. And running back Ryquell Armstead scored six of Temple’s eight touchdowns. Yes, six. He rushed for 210 yards and six touchdowns on 30 carries to help the Owls clinch a bowl berth. Remarkably, that’s not a school record. Montel Harris had seven against Army in 2012. But it is an AAC record. Temple wasn’t in the conference when Harris had his seven.

Losers

Miami: Miami has now lost four consecutive games. The Hurricanes fell 27-21 to Georgia Tech on Saturday to drop to 5-5 on the year. The Hurricanes lost three fumbles in the loss and those fumbles led to 13 Georgia Tech points. Miami coach Mark Richt went back to N’Kosi Perry at quarterback, but he did not provide much of a spark. Perry went 14-of-23 for just 165 yards passing. With two games left, the Hurricanes need to beat either Virginia Tech or Pitt to reach a bowl game.

Auburn: Perhaps Auburn athletic director Allen Greene wishes he didn’t publicly proclaim that Gus Malzahn would return next season. The Tigers jumped out to a 7-3 lead over No. 5 Georgia but just could not do enough offensively to beat the Bulldogs. Auburn mustered 274 yards of offense while giving up 516 yards in a 27-10 loss. The Tigers are 6-4 overall and just 3-4 in SEC play with the Iron Bowl coming up in two weeks. A blowout loss to Alabama could be in store. The school has to be regretting Malzahn’s seven-year, $49 million extension more and more with each passing day.

Will Muschamp: Will Muschamp had to be feeling good for the early part of Saturday afternoon. The South Carolina coach was back in his old stomping grounds, Florida, and had a 31-14 lead late in the third quarter, And then the wheels fell off. Florida stormed all the way back and won 35-31, scoring the winning touchdown with 4:09 to play. The Gamecocks dropped to 5-4 with the loss and Muschamp is now 0-2 as an opposing head coach in The Swamp.

Virginia Tech: After Saturday’s blowout loss to Pitt, Virginia Tech is in serious jeopardy of snapping its 25-year bowl streak. The Hokies, who gave up at least 45 points for the fourth time this season, are now 4-5 on the year with games against Miami and Virginia remaining. Unless the school is able to get a makeup game scheduled (its September game vs. East Carolina was canceled due to Hurricane Florence), it will have to win both of those games to avoid missing a bowl for the first time since 1992.

Purdue: Man, what happened to Purdue? Entering Saturday’s game vs. Minnesota, the Boilermakers had won five of their previous six games. But they had a miserable performance against the Gophers and lost 41-10. Minnesota had lost five of its last six games, including a 55-31 defeat to Illinois last week. Now both the Gophers and Boilermakers are 5-5 on the year. Purdue needs a win over Wisconsin or Indiana to get back to a bowl. Minnesota has Northwestern and Wisconsin left.

Colorado: Remember when Colorado was 5-0? Well, now CU is 5-5 after losing 31-7 at home to Washington State on Saturday. It’s an ugly fall for a program that looked like it had a shot to get back to the Pac-12 title game. Now, the Buffs need to scrounge up a win over either Utah or Cal just to reach a bowl. Mike MacIntyre’s name could surface in hot-seat discussions in the coming weeks, too.

North Carolina: Speaking of hot-seat discussions, North Carolina is going to have a tough time justifying keeping Larry Fedora. The Tar Heels dropped to 1-8 with their loss to rival Duke on Saturday. Of UNC’s eight losses, six are by 10 points or less, so the team hasn’t quit on Fedora. Still, the Heels are 4-17 over the last two seasons. That’s really bad.

Kansas: Trailing rival Kansas State 17-14 in the final minute, Kansas looked like it had a chance to at least force overtime. Instead, the Jayhawks lost the game when QB Peyton Bender, on a play from the KSU 32, had a pass simply slip out of his hands. Kansas State recovered the fumble and held on for the win. Ouch.

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