College football week 10 is in the books. After every week fans can take away things from what happened on the field. Here are 5 things learned from conference championship week.
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1. Curt Cignetti Has the Best Turnaround of All Time
When Curt Cignetti took the Indiana job, they were coming off a three-win season. He was moving up from James Madison and took over the losingest program in college football. He has had two great seasons and now they don’t have the most losses of any FBS program. In his first season, he went 11-2 and made the College Football Playoff. This year, he went 12-0 during the regular season to make the Big Ten Championship.
In a game where the Hoosiers were matched up with Ohio State, the other undefeated team in the FBS during the regular season, Indiana scored 13 points, but their defense only allowed 10 against an offense that has plenty of future pros. They won the Big Ten Championship, making Curt Cignetti a miracle worker. A turnaround like this likely won’t happen for quite some time.
2. Kirby Can Beat Alabama
There was a lot of talk about Kirby Smart only having one win over Alabama in his career. It started as a Smart vs. Nick Saban, mentee vs. mentor matchup, but Smart has even struggled with new Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer. When the two teams played in the regular season, Alabama was able to come away with a victory.
The two teams had a rematch in the SEC Championship this weekend. Georgia won 28-7, winning pretty easily and capturing an SEC title and a first-round bye in the CFP. Kirby has had his struggles, but winning handily over Alabama has to feel good as the team head to the CFP.
3. Two Group of Five Teams Will be in the CFP
Heading into conference championship weekend, there was a scenario where two group of five teams would make the CFP. On Friday night, two of the dominoes fell in that favor. Tulane defeated Troy to lock up their spot as the highest-ranked group of five conference team. James Madison also defeated Troy in the Sun Belt championship. The Dukes were ranked last week and need the ACC Championship Game to go their way, to be the fifth-highest-ranked conference champion to make the CFP.
On Saturday night, Duke was able to beat Virginia in the ACC Championship. Duke had five regular-season losses, so even though they won the ACC, they are likely out of the CFP. It is a scenario that won’t likely happen very often, but now two group of five teams are in the CFP, unless the CFP committee adds Duke to their rankings and have them jump James Madison.
4. BYU is Out of the CFP
BYU was on the outside looking in of the CFP based on last week’s rankings. They were in the Big 12 Championship this week and if they defeated Texas Tech, they could lock up their spot in the CFP. Unfortunately for the Cougars, they were unable to avenge their only loss of the regular season, losing 34-7.
There is an argument for BYU to be in the CFP. They had just one loss in the regular season and another in the conference championship game to the same team. It is hard to see them moving up in the rankings to make the CFP after a loss, especially since the game wasn’t close. It was a good season for BYU, but they are likely out of the CFP.
5. Conference Championship Week is Changing Soon
A lot of buzz was around conference championship week this season, but it wasn’t all about the games on the field. There was a lot of talk about the changing landscape of the sport due to the expanded CFP. The games can impact the seeding of teams and there were some win-and-get-in scenarios, but there were also some games that may have beneficial for teams not to play.
First, Ohio State and Indiana were both solidly in the CFP, but had to play a game in the Big Ten Championship anyways. If the committee holds true to what they did last season and don’t penalize teams for making their conference championship game, but losing, Alabama is in the CFP no matter the result of the SEC Championship Game. While there are many pundits who want to turn this weekend in to play-in games, while I prefer adding a 13th game (10 of them being conference games to deal with bigger conferences) to give an extra data point for the committee to analyze. Either way, conference championship week is likely going to see big changes soon.
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