Twitter Tuesday: Playoff expansion, USC, Notre Dame, Justin Fields
Our weekly #TwitterTuesday file continues this week where you ask National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell your football questions via social media. Here are four questions we chose, including a look at the possibility of expanding the College Football Playoff.
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The noise would get very loud. If Notre Dame wins out and gets shut out of the playoff, that would be a travesty and the Fighting Irish fans would raise a stink. If Notre Dame wins out and gets in, that would means one or even two Power Five conferences would be on the outside looking in, and that doesn’t seem fair either.
I am a proponent of expanding the playoff, so I would love to see the Fighting Irish run the table and cause problems for the powers-that-be because the playoffs would have to be expanded within a few years as a result.
It would be easy to keep a two-loss Notre Dame team out of the playoff, but a one-loss team with its only loss to Georgia? This could get juicy.
You could make an argument that the Justin Fields commitment to Georgia is the most important and impactful commitment in the entire 2018 class.
Why? He is a highly-regarded, nationally-ranked quarterback. As the No. 2 player in the 2018 Rivals100 and a Georgia native, choosing the Bulldogs will influence numerous recruits in the 2018 class and also have ripple effects into 2019 and 2020. Jamaree Salyer could be one huge name recruit that is swayed by Fields commitment as he will decide in December. As we hit crunch time, being able to sell an elite in-state quarterback will go a long way for the Dawgs.
Trevor Lawrence, the top-ranked player in the Rivals100, is a big deal and will help Clemson in the state and nationally as well, but there’s nothing like a home state kid choosing the home state school that makes others want to follow.
USC can still win the Pac-12, so the Trojans need to re-focus and shoot for that goal as the program's College Football Playoff hopes are out the window. Their remaining schedule could allow them to go 10-2 on the year and play in the Pac-12 title game. Even if USC goes 11-2, the team would really need some help to make the playoff despite playing a pretty solid out of conference schedule.
After the drubbing at Notre Dame, it’s important for this Trojans team to come together and run the table against teams they should beat over the last four regular season games. It’s important for many players, Sam Darnold especially, to refocus and finish strong.
Firing Butch Jones now would be helpful for recruiting, especially with the early signing period coming up. The longer the Vols' brain trust waits, the more recruits will be confused and look around as Jones is viewed as a lame duck coach now anyhow.
Tennessee should have moved on after the South Carolina loss and I am puzzled beyond belief that the trigger wasn't pulled the day after the Alabama loss. What are the Vols gaining by keeping Jones in charge?
He has to be a lame duck coach. If he’s not and they are considering keeping him if the team runs the table and finishes 8-4 overall, then the people in charge in Knoxville are willing to settle for mediocrity. That’s just my two cents.
Some view the SEC title game as essentially an extension of the College Football Playoff, a de facto quarterfinal. The winner of that game essentially advances into the semifinals. I am not in that group, however.
If Georgia runs the table and loses a close one to Alabama in the SEC title game, I’d rather see them in the playoff than the ACC, Pac-12 or even Big 12 champion. Can anyone boast a better resume a 12-1 record with the lone loss being a narrow setback against the Crimson Tide? Clemson lost to Syracuse, Washington lost to Cal, Oklahoma lost to Iowa State and if TCU loses, it will be to a lesser opponent than Alabama for sure.
That being said, I don’t see any way Georgia gets in if this scenario plays out because it would likely lead to an immediate rematch between the Bulldogs and the Crimson Tide in the first round of the playoff and that won't be allowed to happen.
