Teams with 1st Loss Week 14:
Georgia
Teams with 2nd Loss Week 14 :
Oklahoma State
San Diego State
Houston
Final Number of Undefeated Teams at the End of the Regular Season:
1: Cincinnati
-Georgia's loss leaves Cincinnati as the nations only undefeated team. We lost at least one undefeated team every week of the regular season save one this year (that is unusual).
Maximum Number of Undefeated Teams at the End of the Bowl Season:
1: Cincinnati
Maximum Number of Undefeated or 1-Loss Teams at the End of the Bowl Season:
5: If anyone besides Cincinnati wins the CFP, we will have 2 teams from it. The other three are in separate bowls games.
Teams with 1st loss:
Week 0 and 1: 41.53% (54 of 130)
Week 2: 34.21% (26 of 76)
Week 3: 32% (16 of 50)
Week 4: 23.53% (8 of 34)
Week 5: 34.62% (9 of 26)
Week 6: 23.53% (4 of 17)
Week 7: 15.38% (2 of 13)
Week 8: 18.18% (2 of 11)
Week 9: 33.33% (3 of 9)
Week 10: 33.33% (2 of 6)
Week 11: 25% (1 of 4)
Week 12: 0% (0 of 3)
Week 13: 33.33% (1 of 3)
Week 14: 50% (1 of 2)
Week 14 Thoughts:
-We finally left our model of only undefeated and 1-loss teams from power 5 conferences making the CFP. If Cincinnati had lost its final game, we actually would have still followed it completely as Notre Dame would have been the next team in and Michigan, Alabama, and Georgia all had 1 loss. Weird to think after all that happened this season we were that close to getting a standard kind of a result.
-The committee was given a gift in Oklahoma State losing to Baylor given that Alabama beat Georgia. I think based on past results, their instincts would have been to put in the 1-loss power 5 champion, but they would have been very aware of the flack that would come from leaving out the Bearcats. I thought most the season that the committee would have put Oklahoma State higher, but I think in the end, if it were the 4 vs. 5 spots, they would have gone Cincinnati higher.
-San Diego State lost badly to Utah State in the Mountain West Championship Game. This was a bit under the radar, but it did set-up the American Championship so that the winner was for sure getting the automatic NY6 spot.
-Love or hate the Tide, how often Saban has won the SEC is really amazing when you think of it.
Bowls Thoughts:
Here are all the games we have involving 1-loss or undefeated teams:
Cotton Bowl: Undefeated Cincinnati vs. 1-loss Alabama: Alabama obviously is the big favorite here, but the Tide have had close games all year while a big favorite (they were a 20 point favorite vs. Auburn). Cincinnati will be a big underdog, but in a one game set-up they can win and certainly make it a game. Cincinnati has already raised the profile of the program a lot this year. Every step past this helps all the more.
Orange Bowl: 1-loss Michigan vs. 1-loss Georgia: Despite the loss, Georgia is still 2nd favorite to win the national championship by a large margin. I think the thing that separates Georgia and Alabama in these games vs. Michigan and Cincinnati is that just getting here was a bigger deal to the latter two. For Cincinnati it meant being the first team outside a power conference. For Michigan it meant getting past Ohio State and winning their first Big Ten title in awhile. For Georgia and Alabama, the season is only considered a success if they have some success now. I don't know if that helps the two SEC teams by keeping them focused or helps Cincinnati/Michigan as it will be easier to feel looser. Going forward, winning the whole thing matters a lot to both schools in this game. Alabama remains the program to beat in the SEC and Ohio State in the Big Ten. Winning it all this year goes a long way to helping both programs change that in their conferences.
Rose Bowl: 1-loss Ohio State vs. Utah: Utah won its first PAC-12 title and is going to the Rose for the first time. They are not going to a major bowl as the best team outside a power conference as before, but as the champion of one. They are very excited for this and know beating Ohio State now could help things all the more in the future. For Ohio State, the season has been somewhat a disappointment. The Buckeyes aren't in the playoff bowls in a wide open year, they didn't win the Big Ten, and most of all they had to watch Michigan beat them and go instead. This is a little different than when they were in the Rose a few years ago in Urban's last season where the Buckeyes managed to win several close games and upset Michigan to get here. I think stewing on how things ended for a month, will keep the Buckeyes focused, but they definitely have something to prove now.
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. 1-loss Notre Dame: This is two teams who were very close to getting in the playoff. Another inch or so and would Oklahoma State have gone? Notre Dame really wishes it could have that Cincinnati game back. I think both teams are pretty motivated here. They want to go out on a high note and show they should have been in. For the Cowboys, they want to be perceived toward the top of a soon-to-be Texas and Oklahoma-less Big 12. For the Irish, they want this for their new head coach and to show that Brian Kelly made a mistake leaving.
Frisco Bowl: 1-loss UTSA vs. San Diego State: These were two teams in the running for the Group of 5 conference auto bid most the year. San Diego State had a disappointing end getting blown out by Utah State in the Mountain West Championship, but they still had a year they beat the PAC-12 Champion. UTSA was undefeated until two weeks ago when they had a surprise loss to North Texas. With UTSA about to go to the American, this might be a minor preview of the races we will have between the 2 conferences in the future.
New Orleans Bowl: 1-loss Louisiana-Lafayette vs. Marshall: Louisiana were the Sun Belt champs in what is an increasingly strong conference. This game will soon be a conference game as Marshall is set to join the Sun Belt soon.
Remaining Undefeated Teams: American: 1, SEC: 0, total: 1
Cincinnati
1-Loss Teams: American: 0, Big 12: 0, Big Ten: 1, Conference USA: 1, Mountain West: 0, SEC: 2, Sun Belt: 1, independents: 1, total: 6
Louisiana-Lafayette
Notre Dame
Alabama
Michigan
UTSA
Georgia
