Wednesday Tailgate: Ranking teams not playing for conference titles
Championship week is here, and teams playing for conference titles will get plenty of analysis and scrutiny as kickoff time approaches. But there were plenty of other teams that put together fine seasons that won’t be poised to win a league crown.
College football’s top five major conference non-champs, based on their full season of work and how they finished:
Ohio State
The Buckeyes put it all together in their regular-season finale, playing like the defending national champions should. Unfortunately, that performance came a week too late. A nice destination is in the offing for Buckeyes fans, but the disappointment of a missed opportunity will be hard to shake.
Florida State
Beating Clemson on the road was always going to be a challenge. The Georgia Tech loss remains a puzzler, but for the most part the Seminoles took care of their business and concluded with a dominant win at Florida that should have supporters feeling good heading into the postseason.
Mississippi
If Ole Miss fans just pretend the middle third of the season didn’t happen, there was plenty to like about 2015. The Rebels got a huge early-season victory at Alabama and closed by thrashing arguably their two biggest traditional rivals, LSU and Mississippi State. Just don’t mention Arkansas to anyone in Ole Miss gear when you see them at their bowl site.
TCU
Horned Frogs followers also will be singing the “if only” tune for a while. If only the team had managed to have all of its best players healthy for its biggest games, a really good season could have been truly great. As things ended up, TCU getting to 10 wins on a nasty night vs. Baylor eased the pain a bit. Whether there’s room for TCU in one of the major bowls remains to be seen.
Oregon
Written off as lame ducks after a home thrashing at the hands of Utah, the Ducks looked a lot more like Oregon in November when, in back-to-back weeks, they beat Stanford and Southern California, the teams that will be playing for the Pac-12 title this weekend.