Teams with 1st Loss in the Bowls/National Championship:
Cincinnati
Teams with 2nd Loss in the Bowls/National Championship:
Notre Dame
Michigan
UTSA
Alabama
Number of Undefeated Teams at the End of the Bowl Season:
0: Cincinnati losing eliminates our final team.
Number of Undefeated or 1-Loss Teams at the End of the Bowl Season:
3: Sun Belt champ Louisiana-Lafayette finished with 1-loss and as New Orleans Bowl champs. Cincinnati finished with 1-loss as American conference champs, and Georgia finished as 1-loss national champs.
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)
Bowls/National Championship: 100% (1 of 1)
Bowl Thoughts:
-The SEC strength at the top of college football is secure again and doesn't seem to be dropping with only Ohio State and Clemson so far able to deny SEC championships since the start of the CFP era (add in Florida State at the end of the BCS era and things go back quite a bit further).
-The Big 12 is about to lose its biggest names and strength, but they had 2 NY6 wins with the remaining teams this year. They should be OK.
-Michigan beating Ohio State was huge for the program, but the bowl results will leave the Buckeyes as the team to beat next year. Another year like that next year though and the narrative might start to change.
-The American Power 6 cry never succeeded at making the conference viewed as a power conference, but as the conference is about to end an era, it very much does seem like they managed to separate themselves from the rest of the Group of 5 conferences which was a huge deal. Getting a team in the CFP would have seemed near impossible as the reconstructed Big East was forming.
Season Thoughts:
-We only ended up with a single week not losing an undefeated team which is pretty unusual. Our list in general was small at the end of the year with only 3 one-loss teams and no undefeated or winless teams, but was also not unusual. Here's our list of end results from files I found last year:
2021: 0, 3, 0 (undefeated, 1-loss, winless)
2020: 1, 15, 9 (pandemic year, shortened schedules)
2019: 1, 3, 1
2018: 1, 4, 0
2017: 1, 3, 1
2016: 0, 3, 0
2015: 0, 4, 2
2014: 0, 4,0
2013: 1, 3, 1
2011: 0, 5, didn't track
2010: 2, didn't track, didn't track
2008: 1, didn't track, didn't track
-We continued this year to only see undefeated and 1-loss power 5 conference champs make the CFP, but did set up president for teams from Group of 5 conferences making it. It took a lot and most other years it wouldn't have been enough (no 1-loss teams in the Big 12, ACC, or PAC-12 helped a lot), but beating a top team on the road out of conference and winning out is enough to get serious consideration and I doubt that will change if we get a repeat.
-Looking into the future we have serious conference changes happening and probably a new CFP set-up coming eventually. I have been doing lists like this for at least myself since the mid 00s, but suspect if we go to 12 teams their usefulness will be much more limited. For next year, the status quo should be maintained though.
Happy off-season everyone.
Remaining Undefeated Teams: American: 0, total: 0
1-Loss Teams: American: 1, Big Ten: 0, Conference USA: 0, SEC: 1, Sun Belt: 1, independents: 0, total: 3
Louisiana-Lafayette
Georgia
Cincinnati
Remaining Winless Teams:
none
