2013 Death to the BCS Playoffs: Semifinals

There are dangerous wind chills in Chicago today, but that doesn't stop the COAS train! Neither does a sad loss by my Green Bay Packers to the 49ers yesterday. Stupid trash talking by Bears fans after their team was eliminated from even making the tournament in heartbreaking fashion... nah, not quite enough.

I set the tournament up so that the semifinal games would take place on playoff Sunday, but after the two scheduled games. Had it unfolded in reality, it would have worked perfectly since Green Bay was knocked out just before scheduled kickoff time that I'd set up. I'd originally thought about kicking off at 6 before pushing it back an hour... it worked.

By and large so far, chalk has been rocked. And the incentive to do really well in the regular season has proved itself so far, as Florida State and Auburn get to host their third straight games. Can they set up what a corrupt system can? If so, I'll forgo the title game post next weekend and let tonight's game speak for the Death to the BCS Championship game. Ultimately, I just want the title to be fully decided on the field.

As in the first two rounds, higher seeds get home field advantage. I take the weather conditions around kickoff time from weather.com to be the conditions for the simulations. Said simulations are done in a best-of-three format, with the "clinching" game being considered the official result. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's play some football.


(4)Baylor @ (1)Florida State

Game 1: (4)BAY 59, (1)FSU 57 (3OT)
Game 2: (1)FSU 30, (4) BAY 21
Game 3: (1)FSU 41, (4)BAY 37
I was thinking upset after the first simulation, and even the computer was thinking about it for the actual result. Baylor led by 7 at halftime and by 10 after 3 quarters. Florida State outscored Baylor 21-7 in the 4th, with Jameis Winston throwing a 3 yard touchdown pass to Rashad Greene with just over a minute to go. The Bears picked up one first down on the ensuing drive before series that went: rush for loss of four, sack, sack, scramble for a yard. The Seminoles then knelt out the clock. As a team, FSU got 66 yards on 30 carries, but Winston went 30-38 for 399 yards, four touchdowns and just one pick. Lache Seastrunk ran for 90 yards and two touchdowns for the Bears, while Bryce Petty had a great game as well; he completed 24 of 27 passes for 348 yards and a pair of scores.

(3)Stanford @ (2)Auburn

Game 1: (2)AUB 24, (3)STAN 22
Game 2: (3)STAN 28, (2)AUB 14
Game 3: (3)STAN 55, (2)AUB 26
Auburn's luck runs out. Tiger kicker Cody Parkey went 4-4 on field goals, but that was about all the success they had offensively. Nick Marshall was just 2-12 passing and had all of 37 yards. The ground game was so-so, with Tre Mason picking up 146 yards on 30 carries, while Corey Grant had the lone offensive touchdown. Stanford basically imposed its will on the game though. Kevin Hogan went 18 of 30 for 337 yards and four scores, but was picked twice (including one returned for a touchdown). Tyler Gaffney ran for 205 yards on 28 carries and found the end zone three times.

To see the updated bracket, click here.

I guess we will have one last simulated matchup coming up next weekend. Stanford pulled off the big upset and dethroned the SEC, something I'm sure a lot of people would be happy about. Amazingly, I predicted this title matchup. Granted, I also picked Michigan State to make this round. Nobody's perfect.

Would these exact results have happened in an actual playoff? Hard to say. But this is the best I can do in a corrupted system. But it sets the stage for what will hopefully still be a good football game tonight, while the Death to the BCS Championship will be decided next week.