Adam Bradford revisits college football conference title predictions

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Each week this season, I have been picking every Big Ten game in college football. This past week, however, I did things a bit different and picked each of the Power Four conference championship games.

So how did my picks fare? Let’s take a look back and see:

Big 12: Texas Tech over BYU

“Texas Tech looks like the best non-SEC/Big Ten team in the country. We will see how far they make it in the College Football Playoff, but they should be able to beat BYU again to win the Big 12.”

Texas Tech dominated BYU for the second time this season.

Record: 1-0

SEC: Alabama over Georgia

“This is the same dynamic as Ohio State-Michigan last week. I think that Georgia is the better team, but until proven otherwise, I need to see that they can beat Alabama to believe it. Can the Bulldogs do what the Buckeyes did and finally take down the team that has given them so many nightmares over the years?”

A week after Ohio State finally broke through against Michigan, Georgia finally broke through against Alabama.

Record: 1-1

Big Ten: Ohio State over Indiana

“Last year’s Indiana team was a great story. This year, the Hoosiers legitimately look like the second-best team in the country. Unfortunately for them, Ohio State far and away looks like the best team.”

Indiana really did it. They actually won the Big Ten—in football—and took down the defending national champions and No. 1 team in the country to do it. This is legitimately one of the greatest sports stories of all time.

Record: 1-2

ACC: Virginia over Duke

“If a 7-5 Duke team that somehow snuck into the conference championship game wins, the ACC is in serious danger of being left out of the College Football Playoff entirely. Fortunately for the league, Virginia wins and ensures that does not happen.”

The ACC nightmare scenario of Duke winning and the conference with five losses indeed played out. Fortunately for the conference, Miami snuck into the field as the final at-large team, so the league was not left out of the playoff altogether.

Overall Record: 1-3

Final College Football Playoff field prediction

“Assuming the aforementioned results (as well as Tulane over North Texas in the AAC Championship Game), here is what I think the College Football Playoff field will look like on Sunday:

  1. Ohio State
  2. Indiana
  3. Texas Tech
  4. Alabama
  5. Oregon
  6. Georgia
  7. Ole Miss
  8. Texas A&M
  9. Oklahoma
  10. Notre Dame
  11. Virginia
  12. Tulane”

With Georgia defeating Alabama, they came in at No. 3, while the Crimson Tide got the No. 9 seed. As a result, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma each moved up one slot from where I projected them, while Texas Tech came in at No. 4.

With Indiana beating Ohio State, they moved up to No. 1, while the Buckeyes dropped to No. 2. In addition, Virginia’s loss moved Tulane up to the No. 11 seed, while James Madison earned the final automatic qualifier berth for a conference champion due to Duke being probably the worst power conference champion in the modern era of college football.

Finally, as previously mentioned, the committee flipped Notre Dame and Miami at the last minute, dropping the Irish out and putting the Hurricanes in. While this was likely the right decision, as Miami beat Notre Dame head-to-head, the fact that they waited until the final week of the season, when neither team even played was head-scratching, to say the least.

CFP matchups

“Based on my predictions, we would get the following playoff matchups:

-(12) Tulane at (5) Oregon

Winner faces (4) Alabama in the Sugar Bowl

-(11) Virginia at (6) Georgia

Winner faces (3) Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl

-(10) Notre Dame at (7) Ole Miss

Winner faces (2) Indiana in the Orange Bowl

-(9) Oklahoma at (8) Texas A&M

Winner faces (1) Ohio State in the Rose Bowl”

Here is what we actually got:

-(12) James Madison at (5) Oregon

Winner faces (4) Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl

-(11) Tulane at (6) Ole Miss

Winner faces (3) Georgia in the Sugar Bowl

-(10) Miami at (7) Texas A&M

Winner faces (2) Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl

-(9) Alabama at (8) Oklahoma

Winner faces (1) Indiana in the Rose Bowl

Overall performance

Predicting conference championship games is more difficult than regular season games, as the teams are typically more evenly matched. With that being said, this was a terrible performance by me. Hopefully I can step things up with my bowl and playoff predictions.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Revisiting Adam Bradford’s Week 15 college football game predictions

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