These are the most likely to make it, based on my opinon:
1. Bama- unless something really strange happens in the Bayou, Bama walks in. They have proven at every opportunity they are the giants and the act to follow in this game. After the game with LSU they will play only MissSt and Auburn and be easily favored by 20+ in each game. The winner of UGA/ KY later in the SECCG should even be relatively easy.
And even if they don’t win the SEC, they still may have a shot. Why? …Because Clemson isn’t getting past Duke. You saw it here.
2. Clemson- who still to this day plays erratic insofar as Championship teams are concerned. One would think the remainder of their schedule is easy except for the tussle with that team out of Columbia, but the game sandwiched between BC and the ‘cocks is the one with real potential to take them out in my opinion. It’s ALL in the matchup, and Duke can do it hide and watch. What will this mean for Clemson and the ACC if they falter?
Well, it means unless you consider ND in the ACC (they should be) the ACC is out, and a late season loss to an unranked team will wipe Clemson’s hopes. Still yet, they are the second most likely school to make it in my opinion.
The crystal starts to cloud….
3. Michigan or ND? ND beat Michigan, albeit a close affair and way back in week one. ND resides here, though. Both teams have matured since then, and both have true tests remaining. Does Syracuse have the ponies to take ND down? Yup. Does USCw? Maybe… But neither are the giant killer- that one will be NW taking an Irish chunk out of the gold britches, and laying their hopes for a reappearance to glory low. As much as I trust the crystal ball in my possession, the light flickers funny in fleeting visions, and though the luck of the Irish plops them in the third spot methinks it doesn’t last.
4. Michigan or Georgia? LSU, or Kentucky? Michigan. Decisively… Unless tOSU has something to say about it. Michigan found their air wing somewhere in the era of our game week four or five, and have been flying successful sorties since, and laying waste to opponents in often dramatic fashion. Dare I say tOSU has been exposed? Yes I should. THE Ohio State Buckeyes under the quasi watchful eye of heart attack central Urban Meyer has been exposed. I’d expect a close affair as rivalries often happen, but this is the year Michigan’s maize covers the scarlet and keeps them from contention. Who knows, maybe tOSU will get a chance, ala Auburn, to take out UCF which is this year’s pesky Florida (almost) mid major?
There is blood in the water now, and it is Georgia red with Kentucky blue’s, and a hint of LSU ‘yeller…
5. Georgia ought to be higher, but they laid an egg in the ‘valley’ of regret. People started questioning their offense, and began to believe their defense was penetrable. Well, the D is penetrable when the question is fast paced HUNH offenses for some reason, and the O doesn’t pack the punch of last season. Still, there is real talent on this team and they have underachieved to several degrees. They made that mess up, though, when they spilled gators in Jacksonville. Some folks, all of the sudden, recall why they were so high on UGA at the start of the season- and I’m one of them. There is question as they approach Kentucky, and some more still as they lay in wait for Auburn (considering they slide past KY). UMass and GT notwithstanding, they STILL have to move beyond Bama in the SECCG.
Within this reasoning is why UGA is Fifth on the list- they ain’t going nowhere with two losses. There are too many other choices, and nobody outside UGA today (and none even within the state after the SECCG) want to see a rematch of last season…. If both Bama and UGA make it, that is precisely what will happen. No worries, 13 voters won’t even allow the possibility to exist this season.
6. And this is as far as this list goes. There are several teams remaining with opportunity to surprise everyone until the last round against Bama. Ain’t nobody going to surprise Bama. Too many Bama fans have said so. The conferences with opportunities live here- such as the PAC offering up Washington State and the Pirate Captain Leach. So lives Oklahoma and Mountaineer’s, an unlikely B10 player of tOSU, and the offshoot kid brother school of Central Florida who are definitely flying by Knight… Beyond this? …Ye Ole familiar- Fruit bowls and Fancy Eating places, Insurance company affairs and some rental car traps, and don’t forget the interweb bowls. …None that matter, anyway. We’ll still watch them, but they just won’t matter…
