2020 College Football Discussion and Pick 'Em Thread

[Dereich]

-snip-

Hey uh what's going on with Florida State right now

Man, I don't even know. I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the shoe to drop and UNC to score 30 unanswered.

[Dereich]

This Bama-Georgia game is shaping up to be an instant classic, but I have a flight I have to leave for before the crack of dawn tomorrow.  I just feel like, if I go to sleep, something insane is going to happen that I'll miss!

Honestly I doubt any game from this year will be remembered as a classic. This is going to be a year that will be forgotten because of the corona weirdness.

[Dereich]

FSU SURVIVED. I CANNOT BELIEVE IT. I'M IN SHOCK.

[Dereich]

Friday, October 23rd
Illinois @ #14 Wisconsin
Louisiana @ UAB

Saturday, October 24th
Nebraska @ #5 Ohio State
#23 NC State @ #14 North Carolina
Kansas @ #20 Kansas State
Georgia Southern @ #25 Coastal Carolina
Auburn @ Ole Miss
Oklahoma @ TCU
Temple @ Memphis
Florida State @ Louisville
Tulane @ UCF
#3 Notre Dame @ Pittsburgh
#17 Iowa State @ #6 Oklahoma State
#8 Penn State @ Indiana
#19 Virginia Tech @ Wake Forest
Baylor @ Texas
Iowa @ Purdue
Kentucky @ Missouri
South Carolina @ LSU
Utah State @ Boise State
Wyoming @ Nevada
#18 Michigan @ #21 Minnesota
Hawaii @ Fresno State
#9 Cincinnati @ #16 SMU
Air Force @ San Jose State

[Dereich]

Saturday, October 31st

#5 Georgia @ Kentucky Noon EDT SECN

Memphis @ #7 Cincinnati Noon EDT ESPN

Michigan State @ #13 Michigan Noon EDT FOX

#16 Kansas State @ West Virginia Noon EDT ESPN2

#20 Coastal Carolina @ Georgia State Noon EDT ESPNU

Purdue @ Illinois Noon EDT BTN

UCF @ Houston 2 PM EDT ESPN+

North Texas @ UTEP 2 PM EDT CBSSN

Troy @ Arkansas State 3 PM EDT ESPN3

#9 Wisconsin @ Nebraska 3:30 PM EDT FS1

#17 Indiana @ Rutgers 3:30 PM EDT BTN

UAB @ Louisiana Tech 3:30 PM EDT

TCU @ Baylor 3:30 PM EDT ESPN2

LSU @ Auburn 3:30 PM EDT CBS

Northwestern @ Iowa 3:30 PM EDT ESPN

Texas @ #6 Oklahoma State 4 PM EDT FOX  I'm utterly convinced that OK State will be horribly exposed at some point, but I think that'll be against Oklahoma, not Texas

Ole Miss @ Vanderbilt 4 PM EDT SECN

Virginia Tech @ Louisville 4 PM EDT ACCN

#3 Ohio State @ #18 Penn State 7:30 PM EDT ABC

Arkansas @ #8 Texas A&M 7:30 PM EDT SECN

Missouri @ #10 Florida 7:30 PM EDT SECN ALT

Navy @ #22 SMU 7:30 PM EDT ESPN2

#24 Oklahoma @ Texas Tech 8 PM EDT FOX

San Diego State @ Utah State 9:30 PM EDT CBSSN

Nevada @ UNLV 10:30 PM EDT FS1

[Dereich]

Indiana (Michigan's seemed kind of bipolar this year, whipping a ranked Minnesota team, and losing to a bad Michigan State team. Meanwhile Indiana barely beat a ranked Penn State and easily beat Rutgers)

Don't sleep on Michigan State. While they did lose to Rutgers, they did so while outgaining them by 100 yards and giving up 7 turnovers plus 2 more turnover on downs.

[Dereich]

Friday, November 6th
#11 Miami @ NC State
#9 BYU @ #21 Boise State

Saturday, November 7th
#23 Michigan @ #13 Indiana
Arizona State @ #20 Southern Cal
West Virginia @ #22 Texas
#25 Liberty @ Virginia Tech
Nebraska @ Northwestern
Michigan State @ Iowa
#8 Florida vs #5 Georgia
Houston @ #6 Cincinnati
Purdue @ #10 Wisconsin
Maryland @ Penn State
Minnesota @ Illinois
Texas Tech @ TCU
#14 Oklahoma State @ Kansas State
Arizona @ Utah
Vanderbilt @ Mississippi State
Baylor @ #17 Iowa State
UCLA @ Colorado
#1 Clemson @ #4 Notre Dame
STANFORD @ #12 Oregon
Tennessee @ Arkansas
Louisville @ Virginia
Washington State @ Oregon State
Washington @ Cal

[Dereich]

Notre Dame are currently up 10 on Clemson. On today of all days it is only right that the Fighting Irish prevail.

[Dereich]

Iowa @ Minnesota

#9 Miami (FL) @ Virginia Tech  Hard to bet on VT after the embarrassing way they threw the game last week
#10 Indiana @ Michigan State
#12 Georgia @ Missouri
#15 Coastal Carolina @ Troy
Western Carolina @ #22 Liberty Hugh Freeze is going to get another good job isn't he? God help us
Wake Forest @ North Carolina
TCU @ West Virginia
Vanderbilt @ Kentucky
Illinois @ Rutgers
Army @ Tulane
Penn State @ Nebraska
#2 Notre Dame @ Boston College
#3 Ohio State @ Maryland
Colorado @ Stanford
Louisville @ Virginia
#20 USC @ Arizona
#24 Auburn @ Mississippi State
Hawai'i @ San Diego State
Baylor @ Texas Tech
#1 Alabama @ LSU
Arkansas @ #6 Florida
#11 Oregon @ Washington State
#23 Northwestern @ Purdue
California @ Arizona State

[Dereich]

Hugh Freeze makes sense. He's really underappreciated at Liberty. Billy Napier's done well at "Louisiana", but other than serving as an assistant at Alabama and Clemson, I'm not sure he's done enough to prove he can succeed in the SEC.

Freeze is by no means "underappreciated." Everyone knows he's a very good coach. The good schools weren't willing to touch him because of the NCAA sanctions and sex-scandal-using-school-property; same reason that Art Briles, another undeniably good coach, didn't get another job. That being said, I think South Carolina dumping Muschamp halfway through the season says they're trying to get ahead of other schools in their choice, a big sign to me that they'll go for a big name like Freeze.

I don't think so either but if they play this way a second year... FSU is one of the few elite programs currently playing like a bottom feeder. I can't think they will tolerate it much longer.

It was considered a shock that FSU was even able to fire Taggert last year. The FSU athletic department is in pretty significant debt and its booster network is much much smaller than other "elite" programs. Massive expenditures on coaches just means less money that can be spent on the facilities that make a program elite. It was FSU not being willing to cough up more money to speed up Jimbo's indoor facilities that made him start looking elsewhere. I'd say Norvell has 3 years at very minimum.

[Dereich]

#9 Indiana @ #3 Ohio State   Hoping so so hard for the upset here. An Indiana-Northwestern Big10 championship would be my kind of trash
Appalachian State @ #15 Coastal Carolina
Illinois @ Nebraska
East Carolina @ Temple
LSU @ Arkansas
Georgia Southern @ Army
Ole Miss @ #5 Texas A&M postponed
#7 Cincinnati @ UCF
#10 Wisconsin @ #19 Northwestern  See above
California @ Oregon State
San Diego State @ Nevada
Iowa @ Penn State
Kansas State @ #17 Iowa State
Virginia Tech @ Pittsburgh
Georgia State @ South Alabama
San Jose State @ Fresno State canceled
#14 Oklahoma State @ #18 Oklahoma  Bedlam overall record: 89 OK-18 OKST. Oklahoma winning this game is just in the blood.
#21 Liberty @ NC State
Missouri @ South Carolina
Michigan @ Rutgers
Arizona @ Washington
#20 USC @ Utah
Washington State @ Stanford
Boise State @ Hawai'i


Also want to point out that Vandy is expected to do better against Florida than FSU is against Clemson. 2020 is the worst.

[Dereich]

Clemson-Florida State (not on our list) has been postponed.

Praise the lord

[Dereich]

Man, what kind of gypsy curse is OK State suffering under that makes everything that can go wrong against Oklahoma do so?

The Hoosiers-Wildcats Big Ten Championship dream is over.

If the Rona kept Ohio State short of 6 games they wouldn't qualify for the championship game...that's not impossible with how things have been lately!

Are we possibly looking at a Northwestern/Ohio State Big Ten Championship game?

I mean, look at Northwestern's remaining schedule:

@Michigan State
@ Minnesota
vs. Illinois

All three of those games are winnable.

Seems the likeliest outcome by far.

[Dereich]

The top 25:

1. Alabama (7-0)
2. Notre Dame (8-0)
3. Clemson (7-1)
4. Ohio State (4-0)
5. Texas A&M (5-1)
6. Florida (6-1)
7. Cincinnati (8-0)
8. Northwestern (5-0)
9. Georgia (5-2)
10. Miami (7-1)
11. Oklahoma (6-2)
12. Indiana (4-1)
13. Iowa State (6-2)
14. BYU (9-0)
15. Oregon (3-0)
16. Wisconsin (2-1)
17. Texas (5-2)
18. USC (3-0)
19. UNC (6-2)
20. Coastal Carolina (8-0)
21. Marshall (7-0)
22. Auburn (5-2)
23. Oklahoma State (5-2)
24. Iowa (3-2)
25. Tulsa (5-1)


BYU at 14 is absolute garbage. They've looked awesome. Georgia at 9 is also laughable. And it looks from this like the Pac-12 has no path even going undefeated with Oregon all the way at 15.

[Dereich]

Put another way: imagine if Auburn or Oklahoma State played BYU's schedule. Does anyone think they wouldn't be 9-0 right now? Me neither.

I count three teams on BYU's schedule (Troy, Houston, Boise) that are clearly better than this year's South Carolina team, so yeah, I could absolutely imagine Auburn losing one or all of those games.

"Ain't played nobody" is dumb logic in the best of times, but especially when so many teams are playing conference-only schedules. BYU's annihilated everybody they've played by 30+. What more do you want?

I acknowledge that BYU originally scheduled several P5 teams that canceled on them, and it's not very fair to penalize them. But it would also be pretty unfair to Texas A&M or whoever got bumped out of the playoffs to give a spot to BYU when half the teams Texas A&M beat this year would be undefeated on BYU's schedule.

And just looking at the wins and losses on their schedules, Boise State is the only one of those three you mentioned that is potentially as good as South Carolina, but considering how South Carolina tends to have more NFL draft picks on its roster (24-16 over the last 8 years example, which admittedly was closer than I expected) and presumably does again this year, I doubt it.

Texas A&M have beaten Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Florida this year. Florida is the only team in that list I am confident would go undefeated against any FBS schedule...and their defense has been playing so bad at times I'm not even 100% about that.

[Dereich]

Week 13 games

Friday, November 27th

#15 Iowa State @ #20 Texas Noon EST ABC

Nebraska @ Iowa 1 PM EST ABC

#2 Notre Dame @ #25 North Carolina 3:30 PM EST ABC

UCF @ South Florida 3:30 PM EST ESPN

Stanford @ California 4 PM EST FOX

#9 Oregon @ Oregon State 7 PM EST ESPN

Saturday, November 28th

Maryland @ #12 Indiana Noon EST ESPN2

Penn State @ Michigan Noon EST ABC  yikes

Kent State @ Buffalo Noon EST CBSSN

Ball State @ Toledo Noon EST ESPN3

Georgia Southern @ Georgia State Noon EST ESPN3

#22 Auburn @ #1 Alabama 3:30 PM EST CBS

Pittsburgh @ #4 Clemson 3:30 PM EST ESPN

Mississippi State @ Ole Miss 4 PM EST SECN

San Jose State @ Boise State 4 PM EST FOX

Rutgers @ Purdue 4 PM EST FS1

LSU @ #5 Texas A&M 7 PM EST ESPN

Arizona @ UCLA 8 PM EST FOX

Troy @ Appalachian State 8 PM EST ESPNU

[Dereich]

So, with Northwestern's loss to Michigan, it's now very possible the Big Ten gets passed over entirely (assuming Ohio State either is ineligible for the Big Ten Championship game, or loses in the Big Ten Championship Game) for the playoff in favor of a second SEC and a second ACC team.

The committee is absolutely going to put a 4-0 Ohio State with no championship whose second best win is Rutgers in the playoff. Because they can.

[Dereich]

I’m late.

App State.

Will have the rest later.

[Dereich]

Saturday, December 5th

"#5" Texas A&M @ #22 Auburn Noon EST ESPN

West Virginia @ #13 Iowa State TBD

#17 Texas @ Kansas State TBD

#23 Oklahoma State @ TCU TBD

Ball State @ Central Michigan TBD

Fresno State @ Nevada TBD

Penn State @ Rutgers TBD

Boston College @ Virginia TBD

Miami (FL) @ Duke TBD

South Carolina @ Kentucky TBD

Arkansas @ Missouri TBD

#4 Ohio State @ Michigan State Noon EST ABC

Memphis @ Tulane Noon EST ESPN+

Nebraska @ Purdue Noon EST BTN

Bowling Green @ Akron 2 PM EST ESPN3

Eastern Michigan @ Western Michigan 2 PM EST ESPN+

#12 Indiana @ #16 Wisconsin 3:30 PM EST ABC  I want to believe...but when vegas is THIS pro-Wisconsin I have to think they know something I don't

Buffalo @ Ohio 3:30 PM EST CBSSN Cancelled

Florida Atlantic @ Georgia Southern 6 PM EST ESPN3

Sunday, December 6th

Washington State @ #18 USC 9:00 PM EST FS1

[Dereich]

COASTAL STOPS BYU ON THE 1 TO WIN IT. Great game!

If BYU loses, they should fall out of the top 25. There's nothing about their resume that makes me think they would even be .500 in the SEC.

That’s absolute garbage. I’d take this BYU team over 2/3rds of the SEC this year.

[Dereich]

If Cincinnati wins the first round, it might be smart for them to lobby the AAC to treat it as a de facto conference title game (I assume Tulsa won't object since they'd have no chance of the sweep). Would open the 19th for a new game against whoever's free that weekend, which may be more persuasive for the Committee than two wins over Tulsa — BYU's the most obvious matchup since they don't have anything scheduled for that weekend, but you could maybe work something out with one of the ranked schools that won't be playing that weekend too (Indiana? Miami?).

Would anyone who is still alive for a playoff position other than Texas A&M even want to play them?

Remember, Texas A&M needs the win to leapfrog the SEC Championship game loser (if that's Alabama), or a second ACC Team (Notre Dame/Clemson). They'd probably have the most to gain from playing Cincinnati (or BYU/Liberty/Coastal Carolina)

I doubt the SEC would let A&M play out of conference; if they weren't going to allow the big SEC-ACC rivalries go forward they wouldn't allow this.

[Dereich]

I’ll do Arizona State and San Jose State for tonight.

[Dereich]

I’ll do Arizona State and San Jose State for tonight.

#16 Wisconsin @ #19 Iowa TBD

Minnesota @ Nebraska TBD

Stanford @ Oregon State TBD

California @ Washington State TBD

#8 Georgia @ Mizzou Noon EST SECN

Illinois @ #14 Northwestern Noon EST ESPN2

Houston @ Memphis Noon EST ESPN+

Western Michigan @ Ball State Noon EST ESPN+

#18 Coastal Carolina @ Troy 3 PM EST ESPN+

Central Michigan @ Toledo 3 PM EST ESPN3

#17 North Carolina @ #10 Miami (FL) 3:30 PM EST ABC

Navy @ Army 3:30 PM EST CBS

Michigan State @ Penn State 3:30 PM EST ESPN

Duke @ Florida State 4 PM EST ACCN

Appalachian State @ Georgia Southern 6 PM EST ESPN3

#20 USC @ UCLA 7:30 PM EST ABC

Virginia @ Virginia Tech 8 PM EST ACCN

Utah State @ Colorado State 9:30 PM EST CBSSN

San Diego State @ #13 BYU 10 PM EST ESPN2

[Dereich]

Week 16 games

UAB @ Marshall 7 PM EST CBSSN

Ball State vs Buffalo 7:30 PM EST ESPN

Purdue @ Indiana 7:30 PM EST BTN

Washington @ #15 USC 8 PM EST FOX

Oregon @ #15 USC  8 PM EST FOX

#14 Northwestern vs #4 Ohio State Noon EST FOX  Northwestern gets to be America's Team this week

"#5" Texas A&M @ Tennessee Noon EST ESPN

#11 Oklahoma vs #7 Iowa State Noon EST ABC

Vanderbilt @ "#9" Georgia Noon EST SECN

Florida State @ Wake Forest Noon EST ACCN

Washington State @ Utah 1:30 PM EST FS1

Air Force @ Army 3 PM EST CBSSN

#19 Louisiana @ #13 Coastal Carolina 3:30 PM EST ESPN

#25 Missouri @ Mississippi State 3:30 PM EST SECN ALT

Ole Miss @ LSU 3:30 PM EST SECN

#3 Clemson vs #2 Notre Dame 4 PM EST ABC

Minnesota @ Wisconsin 4 PM EST BTN

Boise State vs San Jose State 4:15 PM EST FOX

Illinois @ Penn State 5:30 PM EST FS1

Michigan @ Iowa 7 PM EST ESPN

Michigan State @ Maryland 7:30 PM EST BTN

#1 Alabama vs #6 Florida 8 PM EST CBS

#24 Tulsa @ #8 Cincinnati 8 PM EST ABC

Stanford @ UCLA 8 PM EST ESPN2

Oregon vs Colorado (At Los Angeles Coliseum) 9 PM EST FS1

Arizona State @ Oregon State 10:30 PM EST ESPN

[Dereich]

A little late, but f*** Notre Dame. They are always so overrated, you’d think the committee would’ve learned from the ND fiasco in the playoffs last year, but no. Should’ve been A&M. Not Cincinnati, they barely beat Tulsa, I can’t even imagine how bad Bama would destroy them.

What part of Texas A&M's 28 point loss to Alabama makes you think a rematch would be a compelling matchup? At least Notre Dame can say that they showed that in their best win (even if it was fluky) they could beat a playoff team. The best Texas A&M could do was a fluke over a three-loss Florida. And Notre Dame's second best win is over a ranked North Carolina while Texas A&M's is over an unranked Auburn which just fired its coach. The SEC this year (outside of Alabama, of course) was a dumpster fire that did nothing to earn the benefit of the doubt.