The second round of the Student Union 64-team College Football Playoff has already seen some surprising upsets and a few other close calls for top teams. In the left side of the 64-team bracket, second-seed Wisconsin went down and two Group of 5 teams advanced into the Sweet 16. Today, we wrap up the second round with the South and East regions, where all of the top-four seeds advanced out of the first round easily. Let’s kick off with Georgia’s East region:
This was a snooze. Nick Chubb: 9 carries, 49 yards, 2 touchdowns.
And another certified thriller. LJ Scott: 18 carries, 145 yards.
The leader of the G5 pack goes down and we have our first double-digit seed in the Sweet 16. Drew Lock: 18-26, 360 yards, 6 touchdowns. American Conference defense strikes again.
Easy win for the Buckeyes gives us two SEC East versus Big 10 East regional semifinals.
To round things out, Clemson’s South region:
Another BIG scare for a 1 seed, but Clemson survives to keep the top seeds undefeated. Kelly Bryant: 3 interceptions.
Josh Adams: 19 carries, 130 yards, 1 touchdown.
I’m over here rolling over The U getting run off of their own field by Joey Freshwater. Hoping he ran a fake punt with like two minutes left just to twist the knife. We are on full Cinderella alert here, folks.
Jarrett Stidham: 21-29, 316 yards, 4 touchdowns.
And here it is: the top(?) 16 college football teams.
Second-round record by conference:
Independents – 1-0
Conference USA – 1-0
Big 10 – 3-2
SEC – 4-4
Big 12 – 1-1
Mountain West – 1-1
AAC – 1-1
Pac 12 – 3-4
ACC – 1-3
Looking big picture, there’s pretty remarkable balance among the teams remaining. There are a total of eight conferences still represented among the 16 teams. The SEC still has the strongest showing even after losing four teams in the second round. The Big 12 and ACC have their hopes riding on their respective top seeds, while the three G5 remaining conferences all have just one team remaining as well.
Interestingly, the number one seeds all face 4-seeds across the board in the regional semifinals. Thanks to the upsets being concentrated at the bottom of the bracket, all of the 2-seeds and 3-seed Penn State have easier paths to the next round than the top seeds. These 1 versus 4 games, especially Alabama-Stanford and Clemson-Notre Dame, could be trouble for some of the top teams and allow these 2 or 3 seeds to cruise into the final four.
The SU64 tournament will continue with the regional semifinals Friday and according to the full schedule below:
November 28 — Introduction
December 4 – selection Monday
December 8 – West region first round
December 11 – Midwest region first round
December 15 – East region first round
December 18 – South region first round
December 22 – West/Midwest regions second round
December 26 – East/South regions second round
December 29 – Sweet 16
January 1 – Elite Eight
January 5 – semifinals
January 8 – National Championship