Tuesday, January 27, 2015

There's a First Time for Everything

And the 2014 version of the shoulda-coulda-woulda NCAA Division 1-A football playoffs offers some proof to that. 

Aw, what the heck...let's just cut to the chase and show you what happened:

FIRST ROUND (seeding in parentheses): Northern Illinois (9) 35, Louisiana-Lafayette (24) 14; Missouri (16) 35, UCLA (17) 7; Arizona (13) 35, Arizona State (20) 21; Kansas State (21) 35, Colorado State (12) 33; Wisconsin (14) 14, Clemson (19) 7; Mississippi State (11) 28, Cincinnati (22) 20; Mississippi (18) 37, Georgia Tech (15) 7; Michigan State (10) 28, Central Florida (23) 7

SECOND ROUND: Florida State (1) 42, Northern Illinois 17; Boise State (8) 24, Missouri 6; TCU (5) 56, Arizona 7; Oregon (4) 17, Kansas State 7; Baylor (6) 21, Wisconsin 19; Alabama (3) 21, Mississippi State 2; Marshall (7) 21, Mississippi 17; Ohio State (2) 14, Michigan State 7

QUARTERFINAL ROUND: Boise State 22, Florida State 21; Oregon 49, TCU 28, Alabama 40, Baylor 7; Marshall 31, Ohio State 28

SEMIFINAL ROUND: Oregon 21, Boise State 7; Alabama 21, Marshall 14

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Alabama 49, Oregon 21

For starters, it was the fourth straight year a team that had never won these playoffs before went all the way (something Oregon did in 2011, followed by Notre Dame in 2012 and Baylor one season later; the Bears relinquished their title in this season's quarterfinals). 

It was just the second time a Southeastern Conference club won it all in these playoffs...and, inexplicably, the very first time an SEC champion turned the trick. (Florida's 2009 D-1-A playoff champion was an at-large squad...in a year where the Crimson Tide ruled the most popular league in college football.) 

Not only did Arizona and Marshall post playoff wins for the first time, but Northern Illinois did it, too...after five failures, starting in 1983 and then every campaign since 2010. 

This year's MVP: Alabama QB Blake Sims, who fired three air scores in the title game, where he went 24-for-41 for 318 yards (in addition to running for 67 yards on nine tries against the Ducks; scored a TD, too).

Who knows...maybe the trend of a first-time champion winning this version of a major-college football playoff will continue.

Let's just stay tuned and see.