Seventh Day Adventure: Underdogs Stand Out in the Biggest Bowls of the Postseason
In the relatively short College Football Playoff era, we have seen a number of trends in how the selection committee picks teams, and among the most obvious is the significance they ascribe to conference championship games. Teams have made it in thanks to big wins in them—like Ohio State in 2014, which parlayed a 59-0 victory over Wisconsin into the No. 4 seed and their most recent national title. But teams have also been left out for losses, even close ones—in 2017, Wisconsin again lost the Big Ten title to the Buckeyes (this time by six points) and fell from the top four.
With that season's Alabama and this season's Ohio State both making the CFP without having to play that 13th game, some have argued that the committee doesn't respect its professed logic of rewarding division winners. In any case, losing so late in the season and making it in is a difficult task: only one team, 2021 Georgia, has been truly assured of making it despite a conference championship loss, and before this year only one other team, 2020 Notre Dame, had pulled it off.
Even with some help from losses by a thinning field of contenders—Clemson losing to South Carolina, LSU losing to Texas A&M, and USC losing to Utah—TCU knew they would be on the fringe of the playoff if they lost in the Big 12 Championship Game. Even in a loss, it would be critical to put up a fight and leave a good last impression with the committee. So while the Horned Frogs' miraculous game-tying touchdown drive (on which Max Duggan drove them 80 yards by rushing for 95) didn't lead to a win in overtime, it was enough to all but secure their bid to the bracket.
Duggan is one of the biggest stars of bowl season, and his chance at further redemption after a gritty late-game performance against Kansas State will be a key storyline to follow in the Fiesta Bowl. But while TCU's Cinderella season has been the best of a year full of upstarts, the marquee bowls have plenty of unfamiliar teams. Five are in the New Year's Six for the first time in at least half a decade, and three are making the only appearance in the playoff era—tied for the most since 2014. Tennessee and Tulane are looking to cap their best seasons since the turn of the century, while Utah is chasing its first-ever Rose Bowl win and Kansas State is hoping for its first top-10 finish in two decades. The last full weekend slate of the season promises to be a must-watch spectacle to conclude a thrilling season of college football.