The Final Countdown

There is a song going out on the TV commercial circuit where a rock music group called Europe sings a song that apparently used to be a hit called “The Final Countdown.” It’s about a guy microwaving a burrito in a lunchroom with the music group in the background singing their words as the microwave timer “counts down,” and I think it’s for the company Geico, who does more commercials than anyone in the history of marketing. I’m guessing that this was that group Europe’s only hit, but one thing is for sure, the singer keeps singing the phrase “the final countdown.” Over and over again. I cannot get that song out of my head.

But it made me think that the sport of college football is having its own “final countdown” this weekend as the final batch of games, most of them conference championship games, are being played this Saturday. At the end of a few select games, the NCAA’s selection “committee” will choose which four teams will compete for this year’s championship. The teams, as we speak, will this weekend be engaged in must win equivalents of playoff games.

This is only the second year that the NCAA has utilized a four team, two game playoff system to determine its champion. We all know what a fiasco many of those years with the famed “BCS” system always seemed to produce, so a lot of people are happier that there are four teams being selected, instead of the previous regime’s often poorly selected two. Some would like eight teams. Others would like 128. Tough. It’s four.

Last year, as many of you might remember, there were six teams pretty much deserving the final four spots (the four who ended up being chosen, Alabama, Oregon, Florida State and Ohio State) and the two that got left out, TCU and Baylor, who probably now think that the system sucks and that they got screwed. But the team that nearly everyone thought was the fourth best team of the four, Ohio State, to slip in ahead of TCU and Baylor, ended up trouncing the two teams that were seeded one and two, so it seems that last year, they got it right and produced a legitimate national champion.

So the teams are out there again this year fighting for the coveted four spots in the playoffs. At this moment, the four highest seeded teams are Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma and Iowa. If they all win, then they’re all in (I think, since last year, TCU was ranked third and won their last game convincingly and dropped out of the top four to be replaced by the above-mentioned Ohio State). No matter how fair of a process they want you to think is in effect, the committee puts in who they want to put in.

The four highest seeded teams include Oklahoma, which was the champion of the ten team Big 12 Conference (you figure that one out). They don’t have a playoff game, but they just beat all of the playoff contending teams in their own conference and whupped their rival Oklahoma State last weekend to finish in the top four. The ten team Big 12 may have lost out on a playoff spot last year, but this year the conference WILL have a representative.

The other three teams have “must win to be in” scenarios. The “playoff” before the playoffs conveniently has two (from 12 team conference) Big Ten teams, 4th seeded Iowa and current 5th seeded Michigan State, playing each other for the Big Ten championship. Winner of that game is in the four team playoff. That means Oklahoma and the Big Ten winner are locks.

One of the other games this weekend, Clemson vs. North Carolina has the implication of yes, Clemson is in if they win, but maybe, North Carolina could be in if they convincingly beat the number one team in a conference playoff game. Maybe. In this scenario, the “committee” could vote for defending champion Ohio State or they could go with a high scoring North Carolina team if they won.

The other game is Alabama vs. Florida for the SEC championship. If Alabama wins, they’re in. If they lose, Ohio State will probably get back into the playoffs without having to play a final championship game themselves. There are a lot of SEC fans who think the SEC winner should be in, (say, if Florida wins) no matter what happens. There are a lot of SEC fans who think that the final four teams should all be SEC teams. The bottom line is that if Alabama loses, they and the SEC are out of the equation, because they would have LOST the equivalent of a playoff game and Florida just got throttled by Florida State. It’s the playoffs now. That’s the way it has to work at this time of year.

That’s about it. Six teams will again be vying for the four spots. One is already in. Four of the teams (two playing each other) seem to have their fates in their own hands to gain the other three spots, with Ohio State sitting by their TV sets hoping to get some help.

However you want to look at it, the playoffs have already begun. You win, you move on. You lose, you go home. The “final countdown.”