As Student Union continues on with our unprecedented 64-team CFP experiment, it is time to tie up the first round with the South region first round. This bracket is headlined by Clemson, Auburn, Miami and Notre Dame. After wrapping up the games, I’ll break down the overall numbers from the first round and the remaining bracket. You can find prior posts and a full bracket attached below as well. Let’s go.
Not a terrible showing from the Owls, who pick off Kelly Bryant twice. Until next year, 16-seeds. Sidenote: how about that alternate Temple logo?
This is a really tough one for the G5, which loses one of its better teams here.
Texas Tech led 30-20 late but the Irish survive a big upset at home. Nic Shimonek: 30-44, 382 yards, 3 TD, 1 int.
Derrius Guice: 23 carries for 130 yards.
Malik Rosier picked off three times but The U survives a scare. Travis Homer: 20 carries, 164 yards, 1 TD.
What’s true in real football is true in online football: you can NEVER count out Joey Freshwater.
You really hate to see it.
Keytaon Thompson wins the Bulldogs the battle of backup quarterbacks.
No top 5 upsets for the second region in a row. Florida Atlantic could be a very fun cinderella team and Notre Dame-LSU will be another preview of a real bowl game.
Here’s the full bracket after 32 completed games:
Upsets seem to be randomly spread out across regions, as all four saw a team seeded better than eight go down. Higher seeds were 24-8, but three of those losses came from 8-seeds. Third-seed TCU out west was the highest-ranked team to lose and the only top-four seed knocked out. The Group of 5 has five teams remaining and went 5-11 overall. All surviving G5 teams beat a Power 5 team to advance, but Florida Atlantic was the only one to do it on the road.
Here’s the breakdown of record by conference:
SEC 8-1
Pac 12 7-2
Big Ten 5-3
ACC 4-6
Mountain West 2-2
American 2-5
Big 12 2-6
Independents 1-1
Conference USA 1-3
MAC 0-2
Sun Belt 0-1
The Biggest surprises have to be the Pac 12 (#conferenceofchampions), which has a chance to take all four spots in the West region semifinals, and the Big 12, which has as many teams left as the Mountain West and the AAC.
And finally, the best game to look forward to in each round in the second round:
West: #2 USC vs #7 Boise State
Midwest: #3 Penn State vs #6 Oklahoma State
East: #3 Central Florida vs #11 Missouri
South: #4 Notre Dame vs #5 LSU
The SU64 tourney will continue with the second round of the West and Midwest regions Friday. Here’s the full schedule and past links:
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