College Football Playoff Predictions

How Two State Rivalries Shape the Playoff

With the death to the BCS and rise of the 13-member gang called the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, there’s a lot of focus for college football coaches, players and fans on getting selected to compete in the first ever, 4-team playoff. For ten years, from 2003 to 2012, the SEC dominated the BCS winning eight of the ten crystal balls, so it’s no surprise that the SEC Champion is expected to own one of those coveted spots in the first ever college football playoff, a chance to play for the new trophy for the first time in the new era.  Much has been written about the college football playoff predictions and the strong possibility of two SEC teams being chosen on, Dec 7, 2014, when the CFP Committee will announce the Top Four College Football Teams.

Crystal Balls Rolling Ashore

For the last five straight years, either Alabama or Auburn dominated the SEC West with the winner of the Alabama in-state rivalry game, The Iron Bowl, playing in the BCS National Championship game every year. Crystal Balls rolled in the surf onto the Alabama Gulf Coast line like sea shells.  Alabama won three and Auburn won one.  So it’s no surprise that The Iron Bowl has national prominence in college football playoff predictions.

What’s Going On Next Door?

At the same time The Iron Bowl seemed to control the BCS, over in the state to the west change was on the rise. Both teams hired new head football coaches, MS State hiring Dan Mullen in 2009 and Ole Miss hired Hugh Freeze a couple years later.  Mullen’s Bulldogs have shown steady improvement and were bowl eligible the past four years and won 3 of them.  Coach Freeze led his Rebel Bears to two bowl games winning both times.

The Bob Stoops Prophecy

Head football Coach of the Oklahoma Sooners, Bob Stoops, was a bit prophetic when he said there was more parody in the Big 12 conference. In 2012 maybe that was true since no SEC team in the bottom of the conference standings beat a team who finished in the top 7 of the conference that year.  He claimed there was SEC “propaganda” and asked what the bottom, teams 6, 7, or 8 of the SEC was doing.  Well, Bob, here what they’re doing this week.  Ole Miss and Mississippi State, two teams traditionally towards the bottom of the SEC beat two Nationally Ranked Top Ten Teams, Alabama and Texas A&M.  You want parity?  We’ll show you parity.  Stoops! Dare it is!

Eggs Aren’t Over Easy This Year

This year, the SEC West Division is the strongest division in the strongest conference in the country. Two states with two huge in-state rivalries could be headed into a possible two or three-way tie to win the SEC West and to play against the SEC East champion in the SEC Championship in the GA Dome, Dec 6, 2014.  At the time this article was written, all four of those teams were ranked in the Top Ten of the AP College Football Poll and are the only SEC teams ranked in the top 10.  The two states are Alabama and Mississippi and the four teams are Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Auburn and Alabama.

Here’s the schedule for these four teams to play each other:

AL at Ole Miss Oct 4, Ole Miss won 23 – 17

AU at Ms State, Oct 11,

AU at Ole Miss, Nov 1,

AL Vs Ms State  November 15

November 29, Iron Bowl and Egg Bowl

There’s Iron in Them Eggs

For decades there was little talk about the Mississippi rivalry game between Mississippi State and Ole Miss, which was often played after the Iron Bowl. The Mississippi game, the “Egg Bowl,” was just a game you checked in on now and again while you snacked on leftover Thanks Giving turkey and debated the Iron Bowl.  If you had something better to do like re-arrange your sock drawer or alphabetize your spice rack, maybe you did that instead of watching the Egg Bowl.  It was only a must-see game for die-hard SEC fans and the parents of the players on those two teams.  Not the case this year.  The game, called the Egg Bowl, this year in Oxford, is must see TV and has potential to have as much national implications for the 4-team playoff as the Iron Bowl, the annual battle in Tuscaloosa this year.

College Football Playoff Predictions

The Playoff Gang is extremely closed lipped as to how the College Football Playoff Predictions will be made. Since Playoff Committee Chair and Arkansas Athletic Director, Jeff Long, is quoted in the media promising “transparency of the selection process,” and is refusing to provide any, there’s a huge void of information regarding how the top teams will be ranked.

While we don’t expect their criteria to be as silly as Katy Perry’s game picks on ESPN’s morning show “Game Day,” who picked teams based on school colors and cute quarterbacks, in the absence of the official process being divulged by the committee, others are more than happy to fill the void with suggestions of their own. On Sirius XM 91 College Radio, Jack Arute and Gino Torretta are planning their own Championship Award called the “Jack n Gino,” and at our suggestion the ceremony is being held on Amalfi-Coast Italy.  We’re waiting for confirmation that RollTideWarEagle.com will be the official blog documenting that award.

The Bracket Before The Bracket

So we have a College Football Playoff Predictions for a New Bracket.

That’s right, we’re suggesting that the Playoff Selection Committee is going to select the winner of the SEC Championship, which will be either the winner of the Iron Bowl or the Egg Bowl for one slot and the one that does not play in the SEC Championship game advances to the playoff. The two playoff games are both January 1, 2015, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA and the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, LA with the winners playing for the National Championship at Jerry World in Arlington, TX, January 12, 2015.  Grandma always said, “Eat your eggs, they have iron.”  Until this year, we just never knew they had so much.