From Wake Forest and Pittsburgh in the ACC title game to Alabama escaping again, week 13 of the 2021-22 CFB season was as crazy as could be.
Throughout the entirety of this current college football season so far, viewers have praised its shenanigans as some of the wackiest seen in recent memory (if not ever). Keeping with that trend, week 13 did not disappoint.
Before cracking the list of Power 5 takeaways, let’s focus on America’s favorite little guy commonly referred to as Cincinnati.
The Bearcats battled the 7-win East Carolina Pirates on Black Friday, and they needed to look good when doing so if they wanted to keep what little playoff hype they had. Did they look good? Yes. But good enough? I’m not so sure.
A lot had to go Cincy’s way for them to pull away like they did, and the game was definitely more competitive than its 35-13 score indicated, but beating a positive conference foe on the road by over 20 is not terrible. The only problem comes in when wondering just how strong the other top-4 teams would look against someone like ECU.
Well actually, if the top-4 team in question is Alabama, then the result would most likely be a complete coin flip.
The Crimson Tide just underperformed against a merely decent Arkansas last week, and their go-to response was to beat 6-6 Auburn by two points over the course of four overtime periods. And did I mention that the Tigers didn’t even have Bo Nix?
One can say with 100% objectivity that the Tide are just not great this year, but folks have been saying that for weeks now. All it will take to prove that is Georgia beating them as badly as they should. That would then leave Alabama with two losses and the official exposure of their limitations.
Speaking of limited 2-loss teams, we have the upcoming ACC title game. Week 13 finally saw the Wake Forest Demon Deacons playing like they were supposed to have played all season long, as they pummeled Boston College, 41-10 in Chestnut Hill.
The victory helped Wake clinch the ACC’s Atlantic division and, subsequently, set up a Charlotte date with the 9-2 Pittsburgh Panthers for next weekend.
Many college football fans feel that such an underwhelming pair of names in the conference’s championship make it irrelevant and, as far as playoff implications go, that is true. However, it’s nice knowing that we will see an unfamiliar ACC champ regardless of the game’s outcome–and said game will surely be offensively entertaining.
Some other set conference title games include the Pac-12’s with its Oregon-Utah rematch, and the Big Ten’s being headlined by the Michigan Wolverines managing to escape the league’s East division.
For the first time in a decade, Michigan has taken down the Ohio State Buckeyes in “The Game,” by a score of 42-27. If the Wolverines can take their conference crown (which they should now be expected to do), they will be the Big Ten’s stunner of a playoff representative.
This was obviously not all that happened this weekend, rather it was just some of the bigger points at the moment. But one thing certainly stands true: This season has been absolutely insane, and we’re still not done.