2015 Death to the BCS Playoffs: Week 13 Mock Bracket

My Cyber Monday gift to you isn't much... but hopefully one final mock bracket was on your list.

I've been saying for several weeks that the mock brackets are getting harder and harder to make... but that's before I start crunching the numbers. The last couple of weeks, especially last week's, weren't too bad. This one makes me a little nervous going in though, because we're going to have to start considering two-loss teams in some of the at large spots.

As a quick refresher if you're new to this concept created by the authors of the book depicted to the left, the Death to the BCS Playoffs are a 16 team playoff made up of all ten conference champions and filled with six at large spots. Where I come in is with the selection criteria. I kind of organically fill and seed the field by combining my NCSS and Playoff Points rankings and combine those with computer rankings compiled by Jeff Sagarin and a UCLA faculty member using the publicly available formula created by the late David Rothman.

So with that, here's a look at the final mock bracket before I do one for real.

2015 NCAA Playoff Points: Week 13

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Our second to last week of the regular season is in the books, though just about everyone is finished with their seasons at this point. So with the last mass week of football in the books, it's time to take a look at the numbers.

Last week's Playoff Points rankings didn't really change much other than some minor swings in a couple spots. For the most part though, everything is locked in, but these rankings are important to some degree.

 If you need a refresher on how Playoff Points work, you can refer back to my Week 1 post. Here is an update on what we're looking at through 13 weeks of football.

2015 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 12

The coalition is back, and Adam has returned from vacation to rejoin me for the stretch run!

Last week we saw history get made, and it was something my dad texted me about on Monday after I had taken note of it. Four of the 14 games from last week were consensus picks by all four people in our contest. We split those games. The other ten were all "hero" picks where one person went against the grain. Every person going hero won that game, and everybody won at least one. Geoffy did the best, getting four hero picks to lead the week, taking four of our six disputed picks.

Adam will return to picking games with me for each of the next six weeks as I try to complete a comeback. I'm within striking distance; I'm only eight games back of him with those six weeks to go. It's doable.

We're finally all done with bye weeks, so we're back to 16 games the rest of the way. Adam and I disagree on six games this week. From all of us here at Confessions of a Sportscaster, have a happy Thanksgiving!

2015 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 13

It's time to right last week's wrongs.

Last week was the week I hate in every college football season where we see a handful of cowards in power programs who schedule cupcakes for the second to last game of the regular season. Starting today, many teams are playing their twelfth and final game between now and Saturday, though a few still have one more week to go beyond this one. Either way, there are non-conference games that need to be looked at.

One note of a correction from last week: I didn't realize that Notre Dame and Boston College were playing at Fenway Park. Notre Dame still gets two points for playing a team from a "Power Five" conference, but Boston College only gets one point for the matchup because it is not a road game. That correction is reflected on my NCSS spreadsheet and will be reflected in this week's rankings.

I will have to consider adding Notre Dame to that list of "Power Five" schools and make scheduling them worth an extra point in the future, especially given how good they've been this year. That is a discussion for another day, however. For now, I have to look at the non-conference games for the upcoming week. As a bonus, with conference title games the following week, I'm going to add in notes about any games that could impact automatic bids to the Death to the BCS Playoffs. Let's take a look.

2015 Death to the BCS Playoffs: Week 12 Mock Bracket

The football gods just keep making this tougher and tougher, don't they?

Last week's mock bracket was easy to fill, but hard to sort. With only two undefeated teams left in the country, it makes my job to a degree easier, but it also makes it that much harder, because now I have to sort through teams with blemishes on their resumes. That's part of what makes this fun though.

So for those of you new to the concept of the Death to the BCS Playoffs, it's a system built on the concept created by sportswriters Dan Wetzel, Josh Peter and Jeff Passan. We expand on the current College Football Playoff by going to 16 teams: the ten conference champions all get automatic bids, and the rest of the field is filled with at-large bids. These teams will then be seeded 1-16, with home field advantage going to the higher seeds for the first three rounds, and the national title game played at the Rose Bowl as God intended.

So how do we pick the field (in particular, the at-large teams), and how are they seeded? I'm a selection committee of one, but I have multiple tools at my disposal. I use my NCSS and Playoff Points rankings. Then, to attempt to remove any bias I may have, I also use computer rankings compiled by Jeff Sagarin and a UCLA faculty member using the publicly available formula created by the late David Rothman. These rankings all kind of jumble together organically until I come up with a 16 team field that is seeded properly.

After the jump, you can see my newest mock playoff field.

2015 NCAA Playoff Points: Week 12

I'm running a little behind this week thanks to my seven-games-in-three-days basketball binge. Somehow I still have a voice, and I have some football catching up to do.

We're down to just two undefeated teams left in the realm of college football, which is a little crazy considering where we are, though with just two weeks left, it's not super surprising. It is a much bigger dropoff than last week, however.

So with that in mind, let's take a look at the results from the weekend. If you need a refresher on how Playoff Points work, you can refer back to my Week 1 post.

Game Notes: University of Chicago @ North Central College (11/22/15)

Final Score
Chicago 74, NCC 61

Game Summary
The Maroons (2-1) came out guns blazing, staying hot from outside as the Cardinals (1-1) struggled to get anything going offensively. Chicago was able to use its outside presence to open up the inside a little bit, and the Cardinals had trouble at the line, unable to take advantage of Maroon foul trouble, going into the half down 38-21. The Cardinals came out of the locker room strong, but Chicago kept hitting its jump shots to keep the pace. The Cardinals were able to cut the lead to eight, but momentum swung back Chicago's way and they pulled away to seal the win.

Key Stats

• Chicago: 9-26 3PT (34.6%). This number went down thanks to a cold second half, but the Maroons hit seven of their 15 in the first half to make this one theirs from the start.
• Waller Perez (CHI): 6-7 FG (1-2 3PT), 3-4 FT; 16 pts, 6 reb (3 off), 5 ast. Perez was probably their best all around player today, filling the stat sheet all around. He also had a killer and-1 to serve as the dagger.
• Connor Raridon (NCC): 6-10 FG (0-2 3PT), 2-3 FT; 14 pts, 9 reb (5 off), 3 ast, 1 blk. With his first game jitters gone, Connor stepped up and played well. He scored more than he did in the opener, but also got more involved elsewhere. It's a good start and hopefully a good building block.

Tip Off Tournament Watch
Mount Union 74, Chicago 58
This was a very good game that went back and forth in the first half, but the Purple Raiders pulled away in the second half as the Maroons missed 16 second half free throws. JJ Kukura paced the Raiders with 19 points and six rebounds, while Jake Jacubec added 17 points and six boards. Jordan Smith led the Maroons with 21 points while Alex Voss had 16 points and 16 rebounds.

All Tournament Team
Jake Jacubec, Mount Union
JJ Kukura, Mount Union
Jordan Smith, Chicago
Alex Sorenson, NCC
Connor Raridon, NCC

Tournament MVP
Alex Voss, Chicago

Final Thoughts
I'm just going to come right out and say it: the Cardinals did not play well today. It's possible they underestimated Chicago given their game yesterday, it's possible that playing a matinee threw them off... I don't know. Whatever the case, Chicago outplayed and out hustled them pretty much all game. It meant a rock-paper-scissors tie, with point differential apparently going to Mount Union.

The Cardinals go on a three game road trip now, and will return home on December 9th for a date with the defending national champions in Wisconsin-Stevens Point.