Golden: How the Texas Longhorns (and others) would have fared in a 12-team CFP last season

Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers led the Horns to a Big 12 title and a College Football Playoff semifinal in 2023.

There were several teams capable of winning it all and unbeaten Florida State and two-time defending national champion Georgia being excluded cast a pall over whatever went down between semifinalists Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama.

So what would have happened in a 12-teamer? FYI, I used a bracketed tournament, not the NFL model that rewards the top seeds with the worst teams remaining.

More: Texas basketball needs Tyrese Hunter at his best to make the NCAA Tournament | Golden

Now we know the Pac-12 as we know it is as dead as fried chicken, hence the CFP’s change from five to four first-round byes in this new 5+7 model.

For the sake of this discussion, we’re using last season’s CFP rankings to examine what I think would have happened with the new system.

The first-round matchups would have been No. 12-Oklahoma at 5-Florida State,  11-Ole Miss at 6-Georgia, 10-Penn State at 7-Ohio State and 9-Missouri at 8-Oregon.

These are some delicious games. Mind you, these predictions come with the understand that the higher seeds host in the first round.

Let’s have some fun.

First Round 

12-Oklahoma 24, 5-Florida State 20

The Sooners muster up just enough offense to take out the Seminoles who just aren’t the same without quarterback Jordan Travis. Always take the better quarterback and Dillon Gabriel is the easy choice here over whoever the Seminoles decided to start in place of the injured playmaker Jordan Travis. He was the one player the Noles could not afford to lose.

More: Ferocious new SEC lineup very likely to get the lion’s share of expanded CFP field | Bohls

6-Georgia 48, 11-Ole Miss 21

The Bulldogs, quiet as it’s kept, are probably the best team in the country, rankings be damned.. A toe-stubbing…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/golden-texas-longhorns-others-fared-140114666.html

Author : Austin American-Statesman

Publish date : 2024-02-25 14:01:14

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