INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The first huge win in school soccer’s postseason goes to Boise State. The Broncos captured the Mountain West Conference title Friday night time and earned their spot within the sport’s first 12-team playoff.
The losers? Well, there was UNLV, which fell 21-7 to Heisman hopeful Ashton Jeanty and the Broncos within the convention title recreation. But greater than that, it was the Big 12, which noticed one in every of its paths to a first-round bye in these playoffs blocked off by Jeanty and Co.
Boise State will hold on to or enhance on its No. 10 rating within the ultimate College Football Playoff rankings that come out Sunday. That would nearly definitely make the Broncos no worse than the fourth-best convention titlist and in line for a first-round bye.
The Big 12 title recreation on Saturday pits No. 15 Arizona State in opposition to No. 16 Iowa State.
The winner is within the playoff. But the one reasonable route left for both crew to earn a bye ( and the additional $4 million that comes with it ) could be to mix that win — ideally a convincing one — with a loss by the Atlantic Coast Conference chief, No. 8 SMU, which performs No. 17 Clemson.
The Big 12 commissioner and Iowa State’s athletic director are amongst these already crying foul. By the time the title video games are over (Saturday) and the brackets are revealed (Sunday), they received’t be the one ones.
The remainder of the drama includes Alabama, SMU and Miami (form of)
Barring one thing fully sudden, it’ll take both a loss by SMU, a change of coronary heart from the choice committee or each to knock Alabama out of the bracket. If the Tide make it, the Southeastern Conference can have 4 groups within the playoff.
Since the choice committee positioned the Crimson Tide at No. 11 final week, one spot forward of Miami, it seems very very similar to the Tide will keep forward of the Hurricanes of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The means final week’s rating shook out, that meant Alabama was in and Miami was out.
Not surprisingly, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, who noticed undefeated Florida State handed over by Alabama in final yr’s four-team bracket, is just not glad.
“Decisions by the committee ought to be based mostly on info, not on notion,” stated Phillips, whose speaking factors embrace Miami’s two losses in contrast with three for Alabama. “Not on the league that you simply come from, not within the geography of the place you sit, however in your resume: What have you ever finished? … Who did you lose to and who did you beat?”
Locks and close to locks
Boise State’s bid is a finished deal.
Oregon, top-ranked and the one undefeated crew within the nation, is in, too. But Saturday’s recreation in opposition to No. 3 Penn State is for the Big Ten title and a first-round bye.
If Penn State prevails, then there’s an argument that the Nittany Lions may find yourself with that prime seed.
In the SEC, it’s No. 2 Texas vs. No. 5 Georgia. Sadly, Bevo won’t be within the constructing. The winner will get a bye and a championship. The loser ought to nonetheless be in, but when that loser is Georgia, the Dawgs could possibly be on the highway for the primary spherical.
Depending on how the brackets form up, these groups may face one another thrice this season.
Home subject dust-up
A handful of groups aren’t taking part in this weekend and don’t have a lot to fret about. No. 4 Notre Dame ought to get a house recreation. (Maybe the Irish, an unbiased, ought to get a bye, too, however that’s a subject for one more day.)
No. 9 Indiana, one in every of 4 Big Ten groups projected to make the playoff, will most likely be on the highway.
In between, there may be the matter of No. 6 Ohio State and No. 7 Tennessee. Last week’s projected bracket paired the 10-2 groups in a first-round recreation to be performed on the Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio.
But their rankings have been flip-flopped from the way in which voters for the AP Top 25 positioned them, and the distinction issues quite a bit. Like Ohio Stadium, Neyland Stadium in Knoxville additionally seats 100,000-plus and offers the most effective home-field benefits within the recreation.
All of which led Vols athletic director Danny White to weigh in, asking for a return to computer-based rankings that have been used greater than a decade in the past in a earlier iteration of the postseason (the Bowl Championship Series, or BCS).
“I’ll criticize the truth that we don’t have a extra goal, computer-based rankings system that simply makes it very clear,” White stated in an interview with UT’s radio personalities. “Everyone understands what the parameters are and it’s what it’s. I feel it might go away quite a bit much less consternation on the again finish that we’re seeing all throughout the nation proper now.”
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AP Sports Writer Aaron Beard contributed to this report.
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