2014 Death to the BCS Playoffs: Championship

In an ideal world, I would be letting the game in Arlington, Texas Monday night play out on its own to decide this playoff system's champion. However, since home field advantage means a ton apparently, I have to simulate one more matchup. If you wish, consider this sim a third place game.

Last week the top two seeds of the Death to the BCS Playoffs escaped with narrow wins to make it to Arlington. While Ohio State won the real trophy in Arlington last night, Alabama and Florida State will take the virtual field to take up a virtual championship banner.

Since these teams have been dropped from Don Best's handicapping site, I'm using the standard starting lineups given to me. Since AT&T Stadium has a roof, weather is not being taken into account (so basically, 70 degrees, no wind, no precipitation). Since this is the title game, I will simulate this as a best-of-five as opposed to a best-of-three that I've done through the first three rounds. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's crown a "champion".

(2)Florida State vs (1)Alabama

Game 1: (1)ALA 35, (2)FSU 28
Game 2: (1)ALA 46, (2)FSU 20
Game 3: (1)ALA 42, (2)FSU 26
Interestingly, pretty close to the final score of the Ohio State-Oregon game. The Tide picked up huge chunks of yards on their opening drive, with Blake Sims hitting Christion Jones from nine yards out to open the scoring. A facemask penalty helped move the Seminoles downfield a little, but they punted near midfield. Alabama went right back to work, with T.J. Yeldon picking up 33 yards on a run to get near midfield, and he would haul in a 17 yard touchdown from Sims to make it 14-0. Florida State finally got going from there to the Tide 31, but stalled there and had to settle for a field goal. Both offenses went quiet from there until late in the second quarter, when Sims hit Amari Cooper downfield, but he fumbled and the Seminoles recovered. The Tide responded by sacking Jameis Winston, then forcing a Dalvin Cook fumble and recovering at the nine yard line. Sims hit Cooper, who held on this time for a touchdown and a 21-3 lead that held up into the break. After an FSU punt, the Tide marched into field goal range, but missed from 41 yards. They wouldn't miss after forcing a three and out, going 41 yards in just over two minutes to make it 28-3. The Seminole offense responded, as Cook swept left for a 54 yard touchdown to make it 28-10. Alabama answered with a nearly six minute drive, capped off by another Sims-to-Cooper touchdown. Florida State would get some garbage time points, adding a field goal after a 74 yard pass play, but Alabama added another touchdown to put the game away with eight minutes left. The Seminoles would add two garbage time touchdowns to account for the final score. Blake Sims had a monster game, completing25 of 32 passes for 354 yards and an astounding six touchdowns, two of them to Amari Cooper, who had 146 yards receiving on ten catches. Jameis Winston completed 22 of 33 passes for 345 yards and two scores for Florida State, both to Rashad Greene, while Dalvin Cook added 89 yards on the ground on 18 carries with a touchdown.

To see the final bracket, click here.

So to recap: the team that couldn't beat the on-field national champion won a virtual title on the arm of Blake Sims. Home field almost certainly helped matters in the 2014 Death to the BCS Playoffs, as higher seeds went 11-3 leading up to the title game. I also wonder a little bit about an inherent bias in the simulation engine with the SEC, though last season, a Stanford team that went to the Rose Bowl in reality and got blown out by Michigan State won the Death to the BCS Championship. That 2013 Michigan State team, by the way, was eliminated in the first round. When you combine that with the fact that TCU lost to Ole Miss in the simulation but won on the real field... this proves why simulations can only go so far.

This year's College Football Playoff was a success by any measure, as we finally got to see a champion crowned on the field rather than through biased polls and flawed computer rankings. I still hope though that one day, every conference will have a chance to be represented on the field with a shot at a national title.