Teams with 1st Loss in the Bowls:
Coastal Carolina
San Jose State
Cincinnati
Ohio State
Teams with 2nd Loss in the Bowls:
Colorado
Notre Dame
Clemson
Indiana
Final number of Undefeated Teams:
1: Alabama
Percent of Undefeateds with 1st Loss:
Week 1: 6.5% (5 of 77)
Week 2: 18.1% (13 of 72)
Week 3: 13.6% (8 of 59)
Week 4: 33.33% (17 of 51)
Week 5: 35.3% (12 of 34)
Week 6: 22.7% (5 of 22)
Week 7: 7.5% (5 of 67) -Added 50 teams to list.
Week 8: 24.2% (15 of 62)
Week 9: 12.8% (6 of 47)
Week 10: 31.7% (13 of 41)
Week 11: 21.4% (6 of 28)
Week 12: 22.7% (5 of 22)
Week 13: 23.5% (4 of 17)
Week 14: 30.8% (4 of 13)
Week 15: 11.1% (1 of 9)
Week 16: 37.5% (3 of 8)
Bowls: 80% (4 of 5)
-Amazingly, we lost 4 of our 5 undefeated in the bowls.
Bowl Thoughts:
-We end up with 1 undefeated team, 15 one loss teams, and 9 winless teams. For comparison I dug up all the old files I could easily find (and finished a few that I had stopped before bowls). Here's where we ended up this year and before:
2020: 1, 15, 9 (undefeated, 1-loss, winless)
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
-It was a bad post-season for the undefeateds. All three of our undefeated teams outside the CFP lost their bowl games (although mostly in good games, save San Jose State whom was missing a lot). Ohio State and Alabama won their bowl games guaranteeing we would get one undefeated and Alabama won that game handily. In the end, despite the shorter season and less out of conference play, this end list of undefeateds look remarkably familiar.
-Our final 1-loss list is definitely high. The biggest contributor is the MAC where 5 teams (almost half the conference only have 1 loss). With more games, we likely would have been closer to our 3-4 game norm here.
-Our winless column was obviously exceptionally high this year. We had almost twice as many on this list this year as we have had every year since 2015 (when I started tracking) put together.
-It was a great year for independents. Both BYU and Liberty finished 1-loss and Notre Dame will look stronger going back into independence next year despite the disappointing last two games.
-If Big 12 had played as well in their limited out of conference to start the year as they did in bowls, Oklahoma would have stood a much better shot at the #4 spot with 2 losses.
-ACC not winning any hurt, but isn't as bad as will be made out. Two playoff teams and an Orange Bowl spot meant everyone was playing up and only Clemson losing was a big upset. Still, not the best thing to enter next year.
-American performance in bowls was something you wanted to see if you are in the Mountain West, MAC, Conference USA, or Sun Belt. In the biggest game, Cincinnati was very close to beating Georgia and looks to build on that into the future (they will most definitely be the most likely team to get the NY6 bowl next year heading into the season). The rest of the schedule didn't signal the American was light years ahead of any of the other though.
-I think we are all ready for a full season of football next year. Thank you everyone.
Remaining Undefeated Teams: American: 0, Big Ten: 0, Mountain West: 0, SEC: 1, Sun Belt: 0, total: 1
Alabama
One-Loss Teams: ACC: 0, American: 1, Big Ten: 1, MAC: 5, Mountain West: 1, PAC-12: 2, SEC: 1, Sun Belt: 2, independents: 2, total: 15
Liberty
Miami (OH)
Ohio
Ball State
Texas A&M
Louisiana-Lafayette
Kent State
Brigham Young
Washington
Southern California
Coastal Carolina
San Jose State
Cincinnati
Ohio State
Remaining Winless Teams: Big 12: 1, Conference USA: 1, MAC: 2, Mountain West: 1, PAC-12: 1, SEC: 1, Sun Belt: 1, independents: 1, total: 9
Kansas
Florida International
Massachusetts
Bowling Green
Northern Illinois
UNLV
Arizona
Vanderbilt
Louisiana-Monroe
