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Things got very interesting for the playoff committee, as expected, when Ohio State knocked off a previously undefeated Wisconsin team to win the Big Ten title on Saturday night. it wasn’t a rout like it was a few years ago, and it if was, maybe that would make this a lot easier. It’s not. My top two teams are close to each other but separated from everyone else. 1. Oklahoma: The Sooners blew out TCU in the second half as Baker Mayfield again was superb. Oklahoma now has four terrific wins: at Ohio State (and it wasn’t close), at Oklahoma State and twice against TCU. Plus, their loss was against a pretty good Iowa State team. 2. Clemson: Another year, another ACC title for Tigers coach Dabo Swinney, albeit without the great Deshaun Watson this time. The Tigers hammered an 11–2 Miami team Saturday night. It wasn’t even close. I was tempted to put the Tigers over Oklahoma but didn’t. Their résumé just isn’t quite as strong. Th...

INDIANAPOLIS—Ohio State’s players had been hearing it all week. Wisconsin’s defense is the best in the country. Run, pass, doesn’t matter; they’ll stop you. No way you’ll be able to rip off any big plays. The noise stuck with freshman running back J.K. Dobbins. He didn’t buy it—which explains how he managed to rip off both a 77-yard and then a 53-yard run en route to 174 yards on the night. Add in two long passing plays, and the Buckeyes posted a total of four offensive plays of more than 50 yards. (The Badgers had given up three all season going into the Big Ten title game.) In the end, it was those big plays—and the resulting quick drives—that sealed the 27-21 win for Ohio State and pushed the Buckeyes to the brink of playoff contention. Ohio State coach Urban Meyer described the Badgers’ defense as “feast-or-famine style,” in which coordinator Jim Leonhard’s unit tried to force quarterback J.T...

The Heisman race has become a rout. Baker Mayfield ran away from the field, piloting the most explosive offense in college football. The senior from Texas has had a few stumbles off the field but he’s been nearly flawless on it, helping ease Lincoln Riley’s transition after Bob Stoops retirement. 1. Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma, QB : He had little trouble in the rematch with TCU and was named the game’s most outstanding player after tying a Big 12 Championship Game record with four TD passes, finishing 15 for 23 for 243 yards and no interceptions. Mayfield also ran for 65 more yards. The former walk-on is going to cruise to the Heisman. After Saturday’s game, Mayfield slid past FBS record-holder Sam Bradford, at least temporarily, in career pass efficiency rating. 2. Bryce Love, Stanford, RB : Despite being hobbled Love still eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark in a close loss to USC Friday night in the Pac-12 title game. In 12 games (he missed Stanford’...

INDIANAPOLIS — For the Big Ten’s imbalanced divisions, it was same old, same old on Saturday night. For the fourth consecutive year—that is, every year since the conference reorganized its divisions—the East was victorious. In three of those matchups, Wisconsin has been the team to fall, and Saturday’s loss was the second time it’s been defeated in the title game as the higher-ranked team. Before Saturday’s 27-21 Ohio State win, the Badgers defense—which was ranked No. 1 in the country going into the game—had allowed opponents just three plays of more than 50 yards. All were passing plays, two for touchdowns. Against the Buckeyes, Wisconsin more than doubled that number, allowing two passes of more than 50 yards and two rushes. Especially in the first half, the Badgers played as if they’d forgotten Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett was coming off meniscus surgery six days earlier. Barrett was not his mobile self, and witho...

As the College Football Playoff selection committee prepares to release its final set of rankings on Sunday afternoon, one of the biggest remaining questions is which final four participant it will choose for the No. 1 seed. The committee will consider stellar wins, horrid losses, strength of schedule and conference titles, among other data points. Here’s one thing Clemson has going for it: It looks like the best team. The Tigers crushed Miami, 38-3, in the ACC championship game in Charlotte on Saturday night. The win makes their inclusion in the national semifinals a formality. Slotted No. 1 in the penultimate rankings last Tuesday, Clemson is the clear-cut favorite to occupy the same slot in the last version. Whomever it draws in its New Years Day matchup, that team won’t be encouraged by the film of what the Tigers did to Miami on Saturday. A Hurricanes team known primarily for its propensity for forcing turnovers, and flashy piece of celebratory jewelry that acco...

1. We’re all winners when it comes to the new Alshon Jeffery contract. But in another more specific way, Alshon Jeffery is the winner, because he signed a piece of paper that says he’s now owed a lot of millions of dollars. The deal is four years, $52 million, with $27 million guaranteed, which is perfectly reasonable. It puts him right outside the deals signed by Julio Jones (5 years, $14.2 million average annual value, $35.5 guaranteed at signing), Demaryius Thomas (5, $14, $35), Dez Bryant (5, $14, $32) and A.J. Green (4, $15, $26.8) in the summer of 2015. It puts him a tier below DeAndre Hopkins’ recent deal (5, $16.2, $36.5) as well. With the exception of Julio and maybe Green, Jeffery is in the same (or at least a similar) class as the rest of those guys. Contracts will keep rising with the salary cap; this one will look fine in three or four years. And it’s arguably just as good a deal as Antonio Brown’s extension last winter—Brown got ...

Taggart sent a tweet that suggests he'll be recruiting players to Oregon for 2018.  Amid speculation linking Willie Taggart to the vacant Florida State job, the Oregon coach sent a tweet that suggested he'll return to the Ducks in 2018.  Oregon went 7-5 this season, Taggart's first at the helm of the program. He came to Eugene after four years as head coach at South Florida, where he went 24-25 but 10-1 in 2016.  The Florida State job opened up when Jimbo Fisher signed a record 10-year, $75 million deal to become the next head coach at Texas A&M, which fired Kevin Sumlin after the Aggies went 7-5 this season. Sumlin went 51-26 in six seasons.   Taggart and Virginia Tech's Justin Fuente  are rumored to be Florida State's first choices to replace Fisher.  Oregon reportedly offered Taggart a contract extension amid the Florida State rumor.  Source link