2016 Death to the BCS Playoffs: Automatic Bid Games

Tuesday is normally my day of looking at NCSS rankings for college football. But at this point, we are done with all non-conference games, and this coming week is the slowest week in terms of college football games. However, this is a critical week for the Death to the BCS Playoffs.

Of our ten conferences at the FBS level, eight of them are large enough to accommodate conference championship games (and we'll have a ninth next year because the morons running the Big 12 decided to invalidate the regular season with one in a ten-team conference). The winners of seven of these games will receive automatic bids to the Death to the BCS Playoffs. The Big 12 doesn't have an official title game yet, but has a de facto one this year. And finally, the Sun Belt has a couple games that will impact the playoff picture.

So below, I will outline every game that impacts these automatic bids and how they play out with regards to the Death to the BCS Playoffs.

American Athletic
Temple (9-3) @ Navy (9-2)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the American Athletic Automatic Bid.

ACC
Clemson (11-1) vs Virginia Tech (9-3)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the ACC Automatic Bid.

Big Ten
Wisconsin (10-2) vs Penn State (10-2)
Conference championship game.
Wisconsin receives the Big Ten Automatic Bid due to Penn State's ban from the Death to the BCS Playoffs.

Big 12
Oklahoma State (9-2) @ Oklahoma (9-2)
Regular season game. Oklahoma State would be 8-1 in Big 12 with tiebreaker over Oklahoma. Oklahoma would be 9-0 in Big 12.
Winner receives the Big 12 Automatic Bid.

Conference USA
Louisiana Tech (8-4) @ Western Kentucky (9-3)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the Conference USA Automatic Bid.

MAC
Western Michigan (12-0) vs Ohio (8-4)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the MAC Automatic Bid.

Mountain West
San Diego State (9-3) @ Wyoming (8-4)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the Mountain West Automatic Bid.

Pac 12
Colorado (10-2) vs Washington (11-1)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the Pac 12 Automatic Bid.

SEC
Florida (8-3) vs Alabama (12-0)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the SEC Automatic Bid.

Sun Belt
Troy (9-2) @ Georgia Southern (4-7); Arkansas State (6-5) @ Texas State (2-9)
Regular season games. Appalachian State (9-3) is on bye with a 7-1 record in Sun Belt. Troy and Arkansas State would both be 7-1 in Sun Belt with wins.
Appalachian State receives Sun Belt Automatic Bid with Arkansas State loss AND Troy loss. Troy receives Sun Belt Automatic Bid with win AND Arkansas State loss. Arkansas State receives Sun Belt Automatic Bid with win. This is based off of an unofficial tiebreaker based first on head to head results, then results based on teams below the tie, starting with third place and moving down.

Photo by Mark J. Rebilas (USA TODAY Sports)

So, most of these are pretty straightforward. The Big 12 was nice and has a de facto championship game with Oklahoma-Oklahoma State. The West Virginia game means nothing since both of their losses are two those two teams, so they cannot win the conference.. The Sun Belt one was a complicated situation since I couldn't really find an official tiebreaker on the Sun Belt website. I opted to go with a standard sort of tiebreaker, and fortunately we only have one more year of this mess with Coastal Carolina making the jump in 2018 and the Sun Belt joins the Big 12 as 10 team leagues with conference championship games for reasons unknown but probably stem from greed.

And with Penn State... when I made the decision to permanently ban them from the Death to the BCS Playoffs, I had a feeling at some point a situation would arise where they'd have a good enough resume to make the tournament, but having a chance at the automatic bid raised another problem entirely. This means Wisconsin, by virtue of winning the West division, gets the automatic bid regardless of what happens in Indianapolis on Saturday. The Nittany Lions have the resume that would likely get them in regardless were they eligible, but I'll say it again: you prioritize football over the well being of children, you don't deserve a football program. Penn State football should have gotten the death penalty in 2012. Instead, they're playing for a Big Ten title. I hate sports sometimes.

Next weekend my main focus is CCIW basketball, as conference play kicks off a month early. Once I get those updates done, I will come back with one final look at Playoff Points for the 2016 season before unveiling the Death to the BCS Playoff bracket.