Ever since this season’s playoff bracket was announced, all we’ve heard about is whether SMU should be part of it, and the main argument behind those saying “no” is the questionability of the team’s ability to compete, with many feeling that the Mustangs are simply going to stroll into their first-round game and get stomped into the grass.
That pessimistic outlook led me to peek at the conversations revolving around the rest of the first-round participants, and while I wasn’t surprised by them, it was nonetheless laughable to see nearly identical predictions being pushed onto each one. In other words, a fair portion of the college football community would tell you that not only is SMU going to get murdered by Penn State, but that Clemson is going to by Texas, and Indiana by Notre Dame—but why is that?
If anything, this CFB season is one of the last that should ever hear chatter like that, as the consensus throughout it so far has been that it’s all the more chaotic and that “anyone can beat anyone” and “no one has been great this year.” The latter claim is especially noteworthy, as some of those names now being expected to see dominating victories in the First Round have been repeatedly used as proof of it, and for good reason.
Think about it: The Nittany Lions have proven they’re good but, similarly to SMU, have exposed a clear ceiling by losing to the two toughest opponents they’ve faced this year, which ties into a narrative of PSU head coach James Franklin never being able to win the big games. With this upcoming showdown versus SMU being his first playoff appearance ever, I’d have to assume that it counts as one of those games.
As for Texas and Notre Dame, they’ve both been criticized for being amongst the nation’s least-proven squads, as quite possibly their best wins are over Texas A&M, a now 8-4 opponent that they beat by 10. Toss that in with the Longhorns being officially owned by Georgia and Notre Dame having a nasty habit of tripping over smaller wires in the Marcus Freeman era (such as Marshall, Stanford and, most recently, Northern Illinois), and it doesn’t sound like you’ve got too safe of bets there either.
Heck, even Tennessee-Ohio State, which has gotten the least whining and is supposed to be the most competitive, has undeniable flaws on both sides. While OSU is coming off a pathetic home loss to the 7-5 Michigan Wolverines, Tennessee sits with a pair of their own ugly defeats—one to a barely bowl-eligible Arkansas and another by double-digits to Georgia who, just like with Texas, is the best team they’ve faced.
How can we have such a wild season, be left with such imperfect teams, and still be sitting here groaning about the odds of seeing blowouts? It’s a diverse bracket consisting of great stories and perhaps the best array of teams that the committee could have crafted, so why ruin it with waterworks before any of the games even begin?
And hey, even if there are some beatdowns: We have seen at least one literally every year of the playoff era, so pretending that you’re simply trying your best to avoid them this time around makes you come off as not just a pessimist, but a dangerously naïve one.