College Football Playoff What If: The 2010 TCU Horned Frogs
Editors Note: With the announcement of a deal on the college football playoff, we’re going back and looking at all of the BCS Busters and seeing which of them would have made the Playoffs.
Previous What If’s:
Playoff Contenders For The 2010 Season:
Auburn 13-0
Oregon 12-0
TCU 12-0
Stanford 11-1
Wisconsin 11-1
Ohio St. 11-1
How It Likely Would Have Shaken Out:
Auburn is the #1 Seed because they come from the SEC and well you know the rest. I think you have to say TCU is in at this point. The question, are the the #2 or #3 seed. And some of that would have to do with what happened the previous season. In fact if as I said yesterday, TCU was national champions last season, they just might be the #1 seed this year, except Auburn is in the SEC and the SEC is glorious. I think TCU gets the #2 seed here but either way they’re playing Oregon.
The question becomes the #4 seed, Stanford lost to Oregon, Wisconsin lost to Michigan St., and Ohio St wasn’t a champion. I would think Stanford would be the #4 seed.
Auburn beats Stanford because as we saw Stanford struggled with athleticism with Oregon. Although, maybe Stanford keeps Cam off the field with their style of offense, and they force him into a couple of mistakes. Oregon nearly did it. But I’m staying with Auburn.
I think TCU beats Oregon because that TCU had freak speed and talent on defense. TCU’s defense would have fit Oregon’s offense like a glove. And as long as the ginger didn’t have a Boise St. chicken-bone game, TCU would have had enough.
That gives us a Auburn-TCU championship. And while people love to polish Cam Newton’s uhh… trophy, remember Oregon took them to the wire. (Something I never got about that game, people acting like Auburn blew Oregon out). I think TCU had Oregon’s athleticism while being more physical. Given that I think TCU might have had just enough and TCU is your national champion.
What If TCU Didn’t Get In:
That would be almost impossible to imagine. But if it did, Stanford is the #3 seed and Wisconsin is the #4 seed. Or you could even flip them to avoid the Stanford-Oregon rematch in the semi-final. Either way I think you’d have gotten an Auburn-Oregon championship.