New Year's Six right on playoff heels
— -- "Let's give them something to think about this winter!"
Those were the words of Bob Stoops a year ago as he paced the field prior to the Sugar Bowl, marching through the lines of pregame stretching by his Oklahoma Sooners. They were the Big 12 champions and sitting on a 10-2 record, but nationally they were receiving little or no pre-bowl attention, sidestepped to talk about the BCS title contenders and the team across the field. This game was already being written off as a rout because Oklahoma was facing an Alabama team that came within one missed-field-goal-turned-touchdown of playing for the national championship. The Crimson Tide were a 17½-point favorite.
But a few hours later, the Sooners had won 45-31. As a result, they jumped from 16th to sixth in the final 2013 AP Top 25, and this fall they debuted at No. 4 in that poll. Even as disappointing losses mounted, culminating in an 8-4 record, the Sooners managed to stay in the Top 25 all the way until the season's final weekend. Despite that slide, OU was used as a measuring stick by the College Football Playoff committee as a "quality win."
Welcome to the importance of a BCS ... check that ... New Year's Six bowl victory.
No, the teams in the "other" four holiday weekend games didn't make the playoff. No, they can't win a national championship. But with a big win on a big stage, they could still finish as high as fifth. And they can use this holiday season to crank up a momentum train that will keep on rolling well into next autumn.
"That's a tricky word, momentum," says TCU coach Gary Patterson, who will be in Atlanta on New Year's Eve for the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl against Ole Miss. "Can one win really provide you with momentum that lasts all spring and summer? Well, I know this: There were a lot more smiles around here after we won the Rose Bowl [after the 2010 season] and there were a lot more of you guys around here that spring and summer."
The Horned Frogs entered the final weekend of this season ranked third by the playoff selection committee, but fell to sixth in the final rankings despite winning. Their lone loss of the season was to co-Big 12 champion Baylor, which fell one spot short of the top four. Patterson's quarterback, Trevone Boykin, has already been declared the 2015 Heisman favorite.
"A win on New Year's Eve against an SEC school in their backyard, a top-10 team, it goes without saying that would be special," Boykin admits, politely refusing to take the bait on any playoff or Heisman springboard questions. "Every big win makes believers in TCU football."
In all, seven of the eight teams ranked from fifth to 12th in the final College Football Playoff rankings are in New Year's Six bowls. That's seven near-miss teams, many of which spent time at or near the top of the standings before falling off the pace, even if just for one week or, even more painfully, one-half of one game.
Ole Miss and Mississippi State made a lot of racket but once again took a backseat to Alabama, even after the Tide lost to the Rebels. Arizona beat Oregon once but had to watch the Ducks celebrate a Pac-12 title and playoff berth at the Wildcats' expense two months later. Michigan State's loss to Ohio State boosted the Buckeyes to selection committee respectability. Georgia Tech (facing Mississippi State in the Capital One Orange Bowl) came within one poorly executed onside kick of nearly knocking off defending national champion Florida State.
The eighth team? That would be 20th-ranked Boise State, which also brings a plenty-big chip on its shoulder pads as the Group of 5 representative, facing Arizona in the VIZIO Fiesta Bowl.
In other words, there's plenty of "next year starts now" fuel to go around.
"Are we hurt to not be in the semifinals? Sure we are," explains Patterson's opponent, Mississippi coach Hugh Freeze. "But we have been given a pretty big stage, too. And we've been given a pretty big opponent. A conference champion. This program is on a climb, and this would be a huge step in that climb toward the next step, which is where those other four teams are."
The people behind the College Football Playoff couldn't have dreamed up a better group of gridiron blue bloods for their inaugural field -- Alabama, Florida State, Ohio State and Oregon. But as hungry as those four might be, they can't match the eight teams just below them when it comes to desperation, a desire to get a jump on being in the second field of four next year.
And one should never underestimate the power of the grudge.
"Would a win on New Year's Day send a message?" Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio asks, answering the question by repeating it back. His 10-2 Spartans face the 11-1 Baylor Bears in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. "The goal is to get a good win over a very good team in a very good game. This is about an exclamation point on 2014, not 2015." Then he smiles -- just a little. "But if that sends a message, then that's OK, too."
