College Football Season Under Way: The Path to the Playoff

The 2016 College Football season kicked off a few weeks ago, and already there is so much hype. The defending national-champions, the Alabama Crimson Tide, won their first two games of the season to remain number one in the polls. However, there are other teams who would like to challenge Alabama for the College Football Playoff. Florida State, Clemson, Ohio State, and Michigan are among the top contenders. These teams have also won their first two games, but the Seminoles and Tigers etched out close, nail-biting finishes against Mississippi and Troy, respectively. The Buckeyes and Wolverines, however, have dominated their opponents on their way to the fourth and fifth ranked spots in the standings. The LSU Tigers and Oklahoma Sooners dropped down in the poll rankings, due to upset losses to unranked Wisconsin and fifteenth-ranked Houston, respectively. And last week, twenty-second ranked Oklahoma Sooners lost to underdog Central Michigan because of poor officiating. Central Michigan was able to score the winning touchdown thanks to an untimed down made by the referees. What a crazy first couple of weeks!

But the season is still young. This weekend, Alabama faces off against Southeastern Conference rival Ole Miss, with both teams being ranked. This should be a difficult test for the Crimson Tide, but I expect them to pull it out in the end. The Seminoles, after jumping up to the second spot in the rankings, will travel to Louisville, KY, and face the tenth-ranked Cardinals and their high-powered offense. Florida State needs to win this if they want to have any shot at challenging Alabama for the National Championship. There are many more games worth getting excited about, but these are two headline-grabbing games worth watching.

What’s not to like about college football? The fans and students come out on Saturdays to support their favorite team, the commentary and analysis from the broadcasters are worth listening to, and the rivalries among historic programs bring more enthusiasm and passion to the games. While not everybody will want to watch college football, or if they just aren’t into sports, I think they should tune into ESPN and ABC once in a while and get a glimpse of what colleges and universities around the USA do on Saturdays, besides academics.