ESPN Predicts LSU Will Be Left Out of Expanded College Football Playoff
For the first time ever, the College Football Playoffs will welcome 12 teams. Which won't include LSU according to ESPN. Not only will they miss, but the experts at ESPN think LSU will be the first team left out. So they think the Tigers will just miss the playoffs.
Now, context here is important. Because this playoff system will not just group the 12 best teams in the country together for a playoff. This won't be the 12 top ranked teams, this won't be the 12 teams with the best records either.
Here's the breakdown from ESPN:
"The five highest-ranked conference champions and the next seven highest-ranked teams will earn a spot in the 12-team bracket. There is no limit to how many teams from one conference can qualify. The rules also don't guarantee spots for certain conferences. The champions of the Big 12, SEC, ACC and Big Ten will almost certainly routinely qualify, though, along with the highest-ranked champion from the Mountain West, American Athletic Conference, Sun Belt, Mid-American Conference or Conference USA.
There is no minimum ranking requirement for the five highest-ranked conference champions. There could be a conference champion ranked No. 23, for example, that's the fifth highest-ranked league winner and earns a spot in the playoff -- at the expense of the committee's No. 12 team."
So...easy, right?
The highest ranked conference champion from one of the Power-5 conferences could actually end up being ranked lower than a team that gets left out. Right? Like they said, the 23rd ranked team in the nation could win their conference title, and would snatch that spot away from from a team ranked at #12.
Which is exactly how they see it playing out for LSU. In ESPN's pre-season breakdown, they have LSU ranked at #12, but getting bumped out of the playoffs by the Mountain West Conference Champion (they project it to be Boise State). But there's a way that LSU can avoid a Boise scenario.
The 12th overall ranking ESPN projects includes the team losing to Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Alabama. But how locked in are those losses for LSU? Because the Tigers will host both Ole Miss and Alabama in Baton Rouge, and with Nick Saban being gone from the Bama sidelines, the Tide game seems more winnable than its been over the last decade.
Basically, LSU has their fate in their own hands. Being an SEC team, if you win your games, you will get in. Even though a Mountain West team could unseat the 4th or 5th SEC team, the second best team in the Mountain West will probably be left out no matter what.