Super Bowl Domination

Chapter 128 Embark on the Journey
Like the NFL, the NCAA also has a playoff, but NCAA football and basketball are slightly different. The basketball playoffs are almost the same as the professional leagues, while football uses an invitational bowl game.

In North America, many large stadiums are bowl-shaped, so they are called "bowl games."

So, how does the invitation system work?
Based on NCAA rankings and internal rankings of each conference.

There are many NCAA divisions and teams, but only twelve regular season games, nearly half of which are against opponents within the league. Therefore, teams in different leagues may not be able to play against each other for more than ten years. This also makes it impossible to simply refer to the record when ranking the entire North America.

In a season, there may be more than one undefeated team, and there may be seven or eight teams that only lose one game. Therefore, the league uses two authoritative lists and a computer list calculated using six methods, referring to team records, schedule intensity, game performance and other data to finally come up with the NCAA's national ranking for each season.

Then, invitations to the playoffs are issued based on the national rankings and the different results of each league.

In 2006, the NCAA underwent major reforms and readjusted the playoff system, officially dividing the playoffs into two parts, the bowl game and the national championship game.

First, the bowl game.

In 2016, the NCAA had a total of bowl games at different levels, with teams participating in the playoffs; and there were six top bowl games in the first-level league, namely the Sugar Bowl, Festive Bowl, Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, and Peach Bowl.

Each bowl game has its own tradition. For example, the Sugar Bowl belongs to the Southeastern Conference, so it is often the Southeastern Conference champion against another team; the Jubilee Bowl belongs to the Big 12 Conference, the Rose Bowl belongs to the Pac-12 Conference and the Big Ten Conference, and the Orange Bowl belongs to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

And so on and so forth.

Second, the U.S. Championship.

According to the NCAA rankings, the top four teams will participate in the National Championship. The competition will be held in two rounds in an elimination format, with the semifinals in the first round and the finals in the second round to determine the National Champion.

Among them, the semifinals are bowl games, and this year the Festive Bowl and Peach Bowl were chosen as the venues.

That is to say, the champions of the Jubilation Bowl and the Peach Bowl will advance to the National Championship Finals to compete for the final National Championship of the 2016 season.

This year, the Jubilation Bowl features Atlantic Coast Conference champion Clemson University versus Big Ten champion Ohio State University, a matchup between the nation's No. 2 and No. 3 seeding teams.

The Peach Bowl will feature the Southeastern Conference champion University of Alabama against the Big 12 Conference champion University of Washington. This is a head-on collision between the No. 1 and No. 4 teams in the United States.

Because the above four teams advanced to the National Championship Game, the bowl game is equivalent to the semi-finals of the National Championship Game. Naturally, the number of participants in other bowl games also needs to be adjusted accordingly.

Like the orange bowl.

Originally it was supposed to be a showdown between the Atlantic Coast Conference champion and the Big Ten Conference champion, but because both champions went to the Jubilation Bowl to compete for a spot in the national championship game, the runners-up of the two conferences, the University of Michigan and Florida State University, competed for the championship of this bowl game.

According to the NCAA rankings, the University of Michigan is sixth and Florida State University is eleventh, but they were still invited to compete in the Orange Bowl.

The same goes for other bowl games.

Different bowl games have different traditions. For example, a bowl game tends to invite teams from a specific conference to participate. As a result, the first and second-ranked teams in that conference go to the national championship game and other bowl games respectively. Then they can still invite the third-ranked team to participate, even if this team may not have a high NCAA ranking.

Simply put, the decision on invitations to bowl games lies in the hands of the organizers, and the NCAA rankings are only used as a reference.

Therefore, it is often seen that the ninth-ranked team in the NCAA misses the first-level bowl game and can only go to participate in the second-level bowl game; instead, the sixteenth-ranked team in the NCAA appears on the first-level bowl game stage.

This year, the same is true.

The most unexpected and surprising thing is——

Louisville Cardinals, a team led by Lamar Jackson.

Jackson once ranked third in the NCAA during the season, and was undoubtedly the favorite for this year's Heisman Award; but at the end of the season, they lost two games in a row that they absolutely could not lose. Although Jackson finally regained his momentum and ended the season with two consecutive wins, their final NCAA ranking still slipped to 15th. Logically speaking, despite this, the Louisville Cardinals with Jackson should also be the focus of discussion, but the reality is different.

Not only did the Louisville Cardinals miss out on the ACC championship, but they also lost out to their league rivals Clemson University and Florida State University, ultimately having to compete in the Citrus Bowl.

A citrus bowl, not an orange bowl.

In the Citrus Bowl, Jackson faced another defensive powerhouse, the LSU Tigers, the team that came close to stopping Levi for the first time this season.

The Louisiana State Tigers' season was full of ups and downs. Despite their outstanding strength, they always lacked a little luck. In the end, they were unable to find the code for their rise and ranked 19th in the NCAA. As a result, they did not receive an invitation to the six major bowl games and could only compete in the Citrus Bowl.

Jackson was a little confused about this.

Obviously, Jackson did not expect his season to fall to such a situation. He could only participate in the Citrus Bowl, while Levi and Watson embarked on the journey to the National Championship Game, and the initiative of the Heisman Trophy competition was no longer in his hands.

In a trance, Levi's words were still ringing in my ears:

Wait until he advances to the U.S. Championships.

Jackson was still thinking that he would not only defeat Levi in ​​the National Championship Game to win the championship, but also win the Heisman Trophy. But now he is not even qualified to stand in front of Levi to compete.

It turns out that the clown is himself.

How did things develop to this point?

However, the nightmare is not over yet.

In the Citrus Bowl, Louisiana State University was united and full of fighting spirit, once again showing its top defensive strength, suppressing Jackson throughout the game, so much so that the rising star completely lost himself.

"29:9".

The Louisiana State Tigers ended the season with a bowl championship, while Jackson, who emerged out of nowhere and made a big splash at the beginning of the season, ended the season bleakly and lonely without winning anything, which is a typical example of a strong start but a weak finish.

But, does anyone care?

No, there isn't.

After the loss, Jackson thought that reporters would surround him again, and then discuss Levi and Watson over and over again, which was annoying; but looking at the small interview team in the player channel, Jackson actually felt a little lost. Is this normal?

So, what about people?
"Levi, are you ready to participate in the draft?"

"Levi, who do you think is the biggest opponent of the Crimson Tide in the National Championship this year?"

"Levi, do you think this year's U.S. Championship finals will be a repeat of last year?"

There was a hustle and bustle, chatter, and countless microphones surrounding Levi, making it so crowded that Levi was trapped at the door of the bus and couldn't get out.

Looking around, Levi was filled with amazement, "There are so many people."

Second update today.

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(End of this chapter)