College football: 5 things
Bowl obstruction
With 80 bowl spots to fill and only 62 teams currently with six wins or more, it appears likely that some bowls will have to extend invitations to teams that finish with a 5-7 record. ESPN reported Tuesday that neither the NCAA nor the bowls seem to have any idea how they would go about selecting those teams. But, no, there aren’t too many bowl games or anything.
ASU dominance
There might not be a current series winning streak in college football more difficult to explain than Arizona State’s 10-game run of dominance over Washington. The Huskies haven’t beaten ASU since 2001, and lost again in Tempe, Arizona, on Saturday despite leading 17-0 in the first half. It’s not like the Sun Devils have been a dominant program in that span. Forget Oregon. Will UW ever beat Arizona State again?
CFP update
The latest meaningless College Football Playoff rankings remained unchanged at the top, with Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame maintaining their status as the top four. The highest-ranked Pac-12 Conference team is Stanford, at No. 11, so it’s going to take a certain amount of chaos for the Cardinal to climb back into the playoff picture after last week’s loss to Oregon. And, of course, a weekly reminder: None of this means anything until all the games have been played.
Heisman talk
Has WSU quarterback Luke Falk played his way into the Heisman Trophy conversation? Mike Leach thinks so, though Falk probably has to put up some other-worldly numbers in the Cougars’ final two games to receive an invitation as a finalist. Alabama running back Derrick Henry remains the apparent front-runner, with fellow running backs Leonard Fournette (LSU) and Ezekiel Elliott (Ohio State) in the mix, too. And don’t forget about Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield.
Top games
Plenty of high-stakes action on tap this weekend: No. 3 Ohio State hosts No. 9 Michigan State; unbeaten No. 6 Oklahoma State hosts No. 10 Baylor; No. 18 TCU visits No. 7 Oklahoma; No. 23 Oregon hosts No. 24 USC; No. 20 Northwestern plays at No. 25 Wisconsin; and No. 15 LSU plays at No. 22 Mississippi.
ccaple@thenewstribune.com
This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 4:45 PM with the headline "College football: 5 things."