Teams with 1st loss Week 15:
none
Teams with 2nd loss Week 15:
Utah
Baylor
Georgia
Teams with 1st win Week 15:
none
Final Number of Undefeated Teams at the End of the Regular Season:
3: Clemson, LSU, Ohio State
-no changes this week
Maximum Number of Undefeated Teams at the End of Bowl Season:
1: Ohio State/Clemson/LSU
Teams with 1st loss:
Week 0 and 1: 35.38% (46 of 130)
Week 2: 38.01% (32 of 84)
Week 3: 32.69% (17 of 52)
Week 4: 34.29% (12 of 35)
Week 5: 21.74% (5 of 23)
Week 6: 11.11% (2 of 18)
Week 7: 25% (4 of 16)
Week 8: 16.67% (2 of 12)
Week 9: 10% (1 of 10)
Week 10: 22.22% (2 of 9)
Week 11: 28.57% (2 of 7)
Week 12: 40% (2 of 5)
Week 13: 0% (0 of 3)
Week 14: 0% (0 of 3)
Week 15: 0% (0 of 3)
Week 15 Thoughts:
-And just like that we are to bowl season.
-Our championship games this week resulted in 3 more teams leaving our 1-loss list. That gives us just 7 teams left on our undefeated and 1-loss lists. Previous 1-loss Utah losing to Oregon might have cost themselves a playoff bowl spot.
-As we end the season, all 4 of our teams from power 5 conferences that are on our undefeated or 1-loss lists are in the CFP bowls. Our 3 group of 5 teams still on the 1-loss list are the highest three ranked ones. It's interesting to think how small a difference changes the narrative around so much. If not for a Thursday night loss vs. Georgia Southern, Appalachian State might well be Cotton Bowl bound (although there would have been debate about that). In week 1, if Oregon had narrowly beat Auburn, instead of narrowly losing to them, we would probably be talking about in them getting in over Oklahoma.
-This will be the first College Football Playoff without Alabama. Clemson is in for the 5th straight time, the same the number of times the Tide have been in. LSU is our 1 new team in this year after a season that looked like it might get a couple.
Bowl Thoughts:
-We will end up with either 0 or 1 undefeated team at the end of the bowl season (1 unless Oklahoma wins it all). Our max number of 1-loss teams at the end would be 7 (have Oklahoma win the national title). The minimum number of 1-loss teams would be 2. We will have at most 2 games between undefeated teams.
-The teams on our lists play in the following bowls:
Fiesta Bowl: Undefeated Ohio State vs. Undefeated Clemson: Clemson kind of just got put in and forgotten by a lot of people due to ACC weakness, but since their near loss early season, they have been fantastic and are actually slight favorites over the Buckeyes here. There is a reason both LSU and Ohio State wanted to be #1 and not #2. For Ohio State's part, outside of one half vs. Wisconsin, they have barely trailed all year. They are offensively and defensively pretty bounced and this is looking on paper like one of the better semi-final bowls we've had.
Peach Bowl: Undefeated LSU vs. 1-loss Oklahoma: Oklahoma did it again. They lost a game and then rolled through the rest of the their schedule to make it here. They will be significant underdogs here, but they do have the tools to win and a quarterback who has played in these games while at Alabama. LSU, meanwhile, wants to finish a dream season. They had a tough schedule and won them all, dethroning Alabama along the way.
Cotton Bowl: 1-loss Memphis vs. Penn State: Memphis had to beat Cincinnati twice in two weeks to get here, but the wins cemented their American championship and left them as top G5 champion. They are coming in in the midst of a coaching change which does not always bode well in these types of games, but there is some history of things working. Penn State, for its part, while somewhat disappointed on missing the Rose Bowl, did finish 10-2 and were the closest score wise to Ohio State. On the flip side, outside of the Ohio State game, their season wasn't ending the strongest with a battle with Indiana and the Rutgers game being closer than expected.
Las Vegas Bowl: 1-loss Boise State vs. Washington: The Broncos really wish they could have the BYU game back. That said, they have a very interesting bowl game after they finished strong with an easy victory over Hawaii to take the Mountain West. I think this is the last time this bowl has the Mountain West in it. The bigger deal than that is that Boise State will be playing a Washington team that has their former coach playing his final game. Petersen announced he was resigning from Washington after their last regular season game and it is somehow fitting it will be against Boise State whom he coached for so long.
New Orleans Bowl: 1-loss Appalachian State vs. UAB: It's not the Cotton Bowl, but Appalachian State beat a 10-2 team to win the Sun Belt and now are going up against Conference USA's runner up. Win this and they will finish 12-1.
Remaining Undefeated Teams: ACC: 1, Big Ten: 1, SEC: 1, total: 3
Clemson
Ohio State
Louisiana State
1-loss Teams: ACC: 0, American: 1 Big 12: 1, Big Ten: 0, Mountain West: 1, PAC-12: 0, SEC: 0, Sun Belt: 1, total: 4
Memphis
Boise State
Oklahoma
Appalachian State
Remaining Winless Teams: MAC: 1, total: 1
Akron
