Conference Championship Week: Who's In and Who's Out?

Dec. 02, 2016

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel-USA TODAY Sports

NOT SO FAST

There are games at the beginning of the year when a team thinks they have a quality game under their belt. Then, they realize that the game turns out to not be important anymore. Nebraska found out the hard way when they beat Oregon. At the time, the Ducks were considered a threat to the playoff, but now they finished their season at 4-8 and fired their head coach. Things don't always turn out how you think they will. As we have seen this year, traditional powers have struggled, and storylines at the beginning of the year didn't turn into happy endings. Here are some games at the beginning of the year that were important at the time and, with varying degrees, turned out to be not so impressive.

HOUSTON 33 OKLAHOMA 23 While this isn't the worst game on the list, the Sooners still wish they could have this one back. At the time, Houston was taking college football by storm and had its eyes on the playoff. Tom Herman was in talks with the school about a contract extension, and his recruiting class was paying dividends. Then, the Cougars went and lost to the likes of Navy, SMU, and Memphis. Now, Houston is still a good team, and while this isn't a terrible loss, it looks a lot worse now that Houston finished 9-3 and won't play for its conference championship.

TEXAS A&M 31 UCLA 24 Bruins QB Josh Rosen was supposed to be the golden child of college football. He was supposed to keep UCLA as a dark horse for the College Football Playoff. But in week 1, his spotlight was stolen by Trevor Knight. Of all the people to beat out Rosen, I'm glad it was Knight. The Aggies QB accounted for three touchdowns, including the game winner, to beat the then#16 Bruins at home in overtime. UCLA would finish the year 4-8 and Rosen would be lost for the season with an injury. A&M would eventually make it to a controversial #4 in the first College Football Playoff rankings, but would soon fall out of the top 25 by losing three of their last four games.

TEXAS 50 NOTRE DAME 47 Between Houston-Oklahoma and this game, Week 1 of college football was exceptional from an entertainment standpoint. This game was back and forth all night in Austin, and Longhorns QB Tyrone Swoopes left the hero with his score to win the game. Texas appeared to be back on track, and destined to contend for the Big 12 title, while Notre Dame looked to rebound. The Horns would pound UTEP, but then lose to Cal on the road and started a three game losing streak. A bright spot for Texas has been Dont'a Foreman, who has been punishing teams on the ground. Foreman's production hasn't seemed to matter much as his squad finished the year 5-7 and HC Charlie Strong was fired. And Notre Dame? More on them later.

ARIZONA STATE 68 TEXAS TECH 55 Red Raiders QB Patrick Mahomes was hyped up to be a serious Heisman contender, and looked the part after the first week. His performance in week 2 was pretty good, but not good enough. He quickly found out that his defense wasn't much help. Remember Kalen Ballage? The Sun Devils back who broke an NCAA record with eight touchdowns this game? He only had six touchdowns the rest of the year and the Arizona State finished 5-7. Texas Tech finished with the same record, and it's defense kept playing their junior varsity....wait, they didn't? Those were their starters? Ouch.

MICHIGAN STATE 36 NOTRE DAME 28 Is it surprising that these teams were two of the worst in the Power 5 conferences? This game appeared to tell us what we already knew. Michigan State was well on its way to the playoff, and Notre Dame once again would need to regroup. The Irish never recovered and have looked awful all year. Michigan State's season would soon be derailed as well.

WISCONSIN 30 MICHIGAN STATE 6 A beatdown in East Lansing stunned college football fans. Wisconsin winning was never out of the question, but a 24 point win was certainly not a predictable outcome for the Badgers. While they still went on to a 10-2 season, this win slowly became less impressive. Michigan State's offense couldn't score, and the defense ended up struggling as well. Going from a playoff participant in 2015 to a losing record in 2016 wasn't something anyone could have foreseen.