2018 Death to the BCS Playoffs: Automatic Bid Games

As I promised... the Death to the BCS Playoffs will live on.

I haven't done my two-to-three times a week series of posts on the 2018 college football season because I wasn't sure if my work would end up coming to fruition. But the 2017 college football teams showed up on my simulator, which likely means the 2018 teams are going to be coming as well.

In the interim, I have been continuing to track college football results and update my usual set of metrics. With Conference Championship Weekend approaching, that means the field will soon have its ten automatic bid recipients, and I'll need to pick my six at large teams and seed everyone. But that's getting a little ahead of myself.

As I've done in years past, I will go through the schedule for Week 14, noting that there are some additional games going on based on postponements from the regular season. Those games will get factored into teams' numbers and will obviously impact some things in terms of computer rankings. But the important games... the games that will determine automatic bid winners? Information on those comes after the jump.


American Athletic
Memphis (8-4) @ UCF (11-0)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the American Athletic Automatic Bid.

ACC
Clemson (12-0) vs Pittsburgh (7-5)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the ACC Automatic Bid.

Big Ten
Northwestern (8-4) vs Ohio State (11-1)
Conference championship game.
Northwestern receives the Big Ten's Automatic Bid due to Ohio State's suspension from the Death to the BCS Playoffs.

Big 12
Texas (9-3) vs Oklahoma (11-1)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the Big 12 Automatic Bid.

Conference USA
UAB (9-3) @ Middle Tennessee (8-4)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the Conference USA Automatic Bid.

MAC
Northern Illinois (7-5) vs Buffalo (10-2)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the MAC Automatic Bid.

Mountain West
Fresno State (10-2) @ Boise State (10-2)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the Mountain West Automatic Bid.

Pac-12
Utah (9-3) vs Washington (9-3)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the Pac-12 Automatic Bid.

SEC
Alabama (12-0) vs Georgia (11-1)
Conference championship game.
Winner receives the SEC Automatic Bid.

Sun Belt
Louisiana (7-5) @ Appalachian State (9-2)
Conference championship game.
Winners receives the Sun Belt Automatic Bid.

There are two major changes from last year. One is that the Sun Belt finally joined the rest of the conferences and added a championship game, so the convoluted tiebreaker scenarios that hurt my head are gone. This makes my job a little easier.

Photo by Nick Wass (AP)

The second is that, for the second time in three years, the Big Ten Championship means nothing with the East division participant not being allowed to see postseason play. I had mentioned back in August in the wake of the Zach Smith scandal at Ohio State that the Buckeyes were on probation pending the conclusion of Ohio State's investigation. Now, that investigation found some wrongdoing, at least enough to force a suspension of head coach Urban Meyer. That's not enough. Since Ohio State kept Zach Smith on for three years without any punishment, they face a three year suspension from an at large postseason berth, but that also includes a one year total suspension, which means they are ineligible for the 2018 Death to the BCS Playoffs. They may return next year or the year after, but only if they win the Big Ten championship game.

This means the Northwestern Wildcats, at 8-4 and winners of the Big Ten West, will automatically make the 2018 Death to the BCS Playoffs regardless of what happens in Indianapolis on Saturday night. The remaining nine automatic bids are all up for grabs. For some teams, this game only has seeding implications, but for others, it's an elimination game. I'll follow the action this weekend, and early next week I will have for you the 2018 Death to the BCS Playoff bracket!