If the NCAA tournament was played out, but in football
- Griffin McVeigh
- Mar 17, 2019
- 5 min read
The 2019 NCAA tournament bracket was announced today and it got us thinking. With all of this talk of expanding the College Football Playoff, what would this bracket look like if the school's football teams played it out? Three of the four playoff teams(Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame) did not make it into the basketball tournament this year so there is no possible way to have the same Final Four! Can any G5 teams make a run or maybe somehow even an FCS?
Incase you somehow missed it, here is the basketball bracket
Let's breeze through the Round of 64 until the Elite 8 to get rid of the non-contenders
ROUND OF 64
NDSU def. Duke UVA def. GWU
UCF def. VCU* OU def. Ole Miss
Miss St def. Liberty Oregon def. Wisc
VT def. SLU* Kansas St def. UCI*
Maryland def. Temple Nova def. SMC
LSU def. Yale Purdue def. ODU
Minn def. Louisville Cincy def. Iowa
Michigan St. def. Bradley* Tenn def. Colgate
Fairleigh def. Gonzaga* UNC def. Iona*
Syracuse def. Baylor UW def. USU
Murray St. def. Marquette* Auburn def. NMSU
Florida St def. Vermont Kansas def. NE
Arizona St. def. Buffalo OH St. def. Iowa St.
Texas Tech def. NKU* Houston def. GA St.
Florida def. Nevada Wofford def. S Hall*
Michigan def. Montana UK def. ACU
*=Does not have a football program
Not many surprising picks here. Reigning FCS national champions North Dakota defeats number one overall seed Duke and G5 Cincy beats Iowa.
ROUND OF 32
UCF def. NDSU OU def. UVA
VT def. MSU Oregon def. Kansas St
LSU def. Maryland Purdue def. Nova
Michigan St. def. Minn Cincy def. Tenn
Syracuse def. Fairleigh Washington def. UNC
Florida St. def. Murray St. Auburn def. Kansas
Arizona St. def. TX Tech Ohio St. def. Houston
Florida def. Michigan UK def. Wofford
The Power 5 dominate in the round of 32, going 14-1. UCF knocks of a fellow national champion North Dakota State. The AAC goes 2-0 while Cincy upsets Tennessee.
SWEET SIXTEEN
UCF def. VT OU def. Oregon
LSU def. Michigan St. Purdue def. Cincy
Syracuse def. FSU Auburn def. Washington
Florida def. Arizona St. Ohio St. def. UK
This is where real football power house programs start to get some decent competition, but not enough to really scare them. UCF is the last non power five team left with Purdue defeating Cincy. Traditional football schools like Oklahoma, LSU, Florida, and Ohio State roll into the Elite Eight.
ELITE EIGHT
LSU def. UCF
This actually is a rematch of the Fiesta Bowl where LSU beat UCF. While neither team was at full strength, if they both were at full strength Mackenzie Milton would be under center. He would for sure of changed the game and produced some more offense for the Golden Knights. The only issue is that LSU was missing a few starters on defense and it would of canceled out the impact Milton would have made on the game. LSU would beat UCF by a comfortable margin.
Florida def. Syracuse
Both teams had decent years by both finishing 10-3. Florida just played a harder schedule and ended the year better than Syracuse. Florida had the rough going of the SEC beating a top 10 team in LSU and blew out then ranked #7 Michigan. The ACC is arguably the worst conference in the country if you take away Clemson and Syracuse had some weird games. They allowed 35 points to poor UNC and NC State teams, got blown out by Notre Dame, and lost to 7-7 Pitt. Their bowl win against West Virginia has an asterisk next to it due to Will Grier being out. Florida would easily be able to handle the Orange.
OU def. Purdue
This one is not even close. A 6-6 Purdue team would not stand a chance against the Heisman winner and the Oklahoma offense. Yes, Purdue beat Ohio State but it was a fluke. Auburn ended the year by scoring sixty three on this Purdue defense. Now imagine what an actual offense would be able to do if it went 100 percent the entire game. Rondelle Moore and his speed would be interesting against the Oklahoma defense, but not enough to keep up with Kyler. Sooners by a lot.
Ohio State def. Auburn
As mentioned in the last game, Auburn has the transitive win over Ohio State. Both teams defeat Washington, but Ohio State’s game against the Huskies was on a bigger stage in the Rose Bowl. Auburn’s defense against record breaking Dwayne Haskins could possibly lead to some issues for the Buckeyes. JK Dobbins would have to establish and possibly struggle in the run game early so Haskins would be able to get going. It would come down to the Gus Bus and the offense for Auburn and I do not think they would be able to get it done against a solid Ohio State defense. Auburn struggled against a high powered Alabama in the second half and I forsee the same thing against the Buckeyes. It would be close in the first half, but after making some adjustments, Ohio State would pull away.
FINAL FOUR
Florida def. LSU
Based on the matchup that already happened this year, Florida would beat LSU to advance to the national championship. This game would theoretically be a neutral site game and that could help out LSU, but Florida would still be too much. It would almost be similar to the first matchup with Florida winning a one score game. Burrow would have to do better than 19/34 with 0 TDs and 2 INTs for LSU to win and I do not see it happening. Florida would lose their home field advantage but win the defensive battle and cause turnovers like the original matchup. Florida advances but it would be closer than the 8 point victory at The Swamp.
Ohio St. def. OU
This matchup actually would of been nice earlier in the actual college football season to help decide who could of played in the playoff. It would be nearly identical to the Alabama OU matchup. Can Oklahoma stop the Ohio State offense and not force their offense to score on nearly every possession. The answer? Probably not. Ohio State’s offense would run through Oklahoma just as well as Alabama did. Haskins and his receivers would gain chunks of yards at once and Dobbins would have a field day himself. Kyler Murray would be able to get some points himself, but not enough for Oklahoma to win this game. A high scoring game would see Ohio State through to the championship.
TITLE GAME
Ohio St. def. Florida
This one is not that difficult of a choice either. Ohio State was arguably one of the top four teams in the country and would not have an issue with Florida. Haskins would steal the show, just as he did against Oklahoma and throw around the Florida defense. It would for sure be the hardest game the Buckeyes would have played all year, but still not much of a threat to them. Florida would not struggle offensively, but would not be able to out duel the Buckeyes. This would be a rematch of the 2007 BCS title game where Tebow blew out Heisman trophy winner Troy Smith 41-14. It would not exactly be the opposite in this matchups, but Ohio State would win 38-24.
Congratulations to the Buckeyes for winning our made up football tournament. The results are definitely skewed, as three of the actual playoff teams did not make the playoff. 64 teams are probably WAY too many for the FBS level, but cutting it in half could work like the FCS does it. College Football will forever be more fun with the different with a bracket closer to 8 or 16.
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