This season, as well as this playoffs with NCAA football has been a bit of "yeah, we knew that was going to happen" mixed in with some, ok just 2, really shocking things that happened.
On one side of the bracket things went exactly like you would have expected with perhaps Oregon being a bit of a shocker getting past Texas Tech as easily as they did. But the rest of the games kind of panned out exactly like everyone expected them to with JMU looking completely out of place in the tournament at all and then with Alabama sneaking past Oklahoma and then getting absolutely obliterated by Indiana in the quarterfinals.
The other side of the bracket though, has been an absolute nightmare for gamblers with Miami really impressing and surprising everyone. They (Miami) barely even made the tournament at all, and here they are eliminating an overall championship favorite in OSU with what looked like relative ease.
That image kind of sums up the entire game. Miami just worked over defending champions Ohio State and I don't think anyone saw that coming. Where was this vigor in the regular season on the part of the Hurricanes? I don't recall seeing it.
OSU was favored by the bookies to win that game by 7.5 and when the bookies make that figure it means that they expect it to be at least a touchdown separating the two. But Miami started strong, stayed strong, and ended strong. Late in the 4th OSU looked like they just might come back as they bullied their way 75 yards down the field to score a TD on a 14-yard touchdown pass to put the game at 17-14. The OSU fans who had been losing their damn minds wondering what the heck was going on with their team, thought that they were finally getting into form only to have their next possession completely shut down aside from a few plays. They threw incomplete pass after incomplete pass as they rushed against the clock. with 6 minutes and 6 seconds left in the game and a series of penalties pushing OSU back to their own 36 yard line, they were facing 4th and 22 and even the most bold coach cannot make the call to go for it in that situation. They punted and hoped that their defense would make up the difference in time to get a field goal.
Instead, Miami scored another touchdown after rushing on very single play and burning out the clock in the meantime. OSU had no choice but to burn their time outs and Miami made it into the endzone anyway. With less than 1 minute left in the game and trailing by 10, OSU had virtually no chance to make this up. They went bananas going for long plays and threw an interception to cap off the game and the season.
Nobody saw this coming. Miami wasn't even supposed to make it this far and was meant to be spanked and sent home to Florida crying. Instead they are headed to the Ole Miss, who also wasn't expected to make it this far with their number 6 ranking.
Never count Ole Miss out I guess because while Georgia certainly didn't make it look easy and Ole Miss had some spectacular defensive plays that forced fumbles that resulted in 20 points in the 4th quarter, Georgia didn't look like the powerhouse that they have appeared to be almost all of the rest of the season.
Some would say that this sort of unpredictable mix up of the playoffs is exactly why it was introduced in the first place instead of the AP and coaches simply deciding who plays in the "final game." Other people, most notably fans of OSU, would argue that they played well all season and "dropped the ball" in one game and that one game shouldn't determine their overall ranking. I think the 2nd opinion sounds like sour grapes to me because the best team needs to play their best all the time, right?
I recall many years ago that my Carolina Panthers absolutely dominated the regular season and the post-season. They were undefeated going into the Super Bowl against a team that they had already beaten earlier that year by a large margin. They were expected to absolutely destroy the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50 but instead they went down 10-0 in the first quarter and never got close to getting it back. This "fluke" game eliminated the Panthers from being in the annuls of SuperBowl history and that is just how the game goes.
The shakeup in the NCAA tournament is kind of a letdown for regular fans though because most of us were really looking forward to Indiana vs OSU in the national championship game. Now it is almost certainly going to be Indiana vs a team that at least statistically, shouldn't even be there.
I am sure that if Indiana absolutely dominates the final game that there will be a lot of people crying that the system doesn't work and needs to be overhauled. While I get that feelings get hurt and fans go home dejected after a season of excellence that is the very nature of a bracket tournament system. If you don't like it then change it over to a league long system of points like they do in football of the soccer variety. The thing is, if they did do that, people would complain about that as well.
src
Miami's defense was the best we have seen them all year
Just roll with the punches and hope that either Miami or Ole Miss can play well enough to give Indiana a run in the final game. Of course there is always the opportunity that Oregon could shock the world as well but that seems extremely unlikely but then again, so did Miami toppling OSU.