If I told you this would have happened, you wouldn't have believed me. As FSU, which had played the toughest schedule of any undefeated team entering the weekend dominated Wake Forest, CFB imploded around them.
On Thursday, I published a "rooting guide" for FSU fans, plotting out the outcomes of games that would give FSU the best shot at getting to the college football playoff, even with a loss. And, well, you see how it turned out ...
Arizona at Oregon: Arizona. It won't happen, but if it's close, perhaps the national media will realize that Oregon has real issues on the offensive line and on defense?
It did happen. Because this was that sort of week.
Florida at Tennessee: If you think a loss here could prevent UF from making a bowl, root for Florida, because more bowl teams makes FSU's schedule look better. Unless you want UF's bowl-less streak to continue. Honestly, this game is not that important to FSU. A win would help Will Muschamp's job security, however.
Long live Will Muschamp?
Texas A&M at Mississippi State: Mississippi State. Why? Because FSU fans want to reduce the number of undefeated SEC teams as quickly as possible. Right now, there are six. Mississippi State still plays at Alabama and at Ole Miss, and the media loves A&M.
Boom
Alabama at Ole Miss: Ole Miss. Ole Miss almost certainly doesn't have the horses to go undefeated, but Alabama does. Reduce the number of undefeated SEC teams as early as possible. Ole Miss with 1-loss doesn't get the same benefit of the doubt as Bama does, by the way. It's a cachet thing.
Bang
Oklahoma at TCU: TCU. A 1-loss Big XII champ is not a shoo-in over a 1-loss ACC champ, just in case.
And TCU did it with offense! Where did that come from?
LSU at Auburn: LSU, again, reducing the number of undefeated teams as FSU sits back and gets to 6-0 before Notre Dame.
OK, this was far fetched. LSU is pretty bad this year.
Baylor at Texas: Yeah, right. Root for my under wager.
Baylor won and its offense looked pretty poor.
Utah at UCLA: Definitely Utah. If Utah pulls this off, and UCLA can beat Oregon next week in LA, the Pac-12 would be out of undefeated teams before Halloween.
Zoom!
Stanford at Notre Dame: I expect Stanford will win, but definitely Notre Dame, for strength of schedule purposes, and to reduce the cachet of the Pac-12.
Hello, College Gameday in Tallahassee October 18.
Nebraska at Michigan State: Michigan State. A 1-loss B1G team is no threat to FSU, and that would give all of the B1G a loss.
Yup.
Miami at Georgia Tech: Do you want to play Miami twice in one season? If so, Go Canes. If not, pull for the Jackets to give Al Golden his third loss in six games. Miami with 5 losses v. 4 losses isn't impacting FSU's SOS that much.
LOL. Georgia Tech ran 65 times, and Miami got only 44 TOTAL PLAYS.
this would be Miami's 39th loss since joining the ACC in 2004. FSU has 34 since joining in 1992 #AllCanesConference
— Chuck Blunt (@cblunt58) October 5, 2014South Carolina at Kentucky: Kentucky, because Mark Stoops and D.J. Eliot are nice guys who did a good job in Tallahassee, and because it would further embarrass the SEC East and diminish A&M's throttling of the Gamecocks.
I mean, this doesn't have any real impact on FSU's chances, but yuuuuuuup.