Every week the CFP Vibe Check tries to put its finger on where things stand in the College Football Playoff race without overreacting to what it just saw, but also probably overreacting to everything it just saw. Did the Big 12 outsmart everybody this year? As the dust settles on Week 6, we saw chaos throughout the land.
The Big Ten and SEC have only three undefeated teams remaining between them after No. 1 Texas and No. 6 Alabama both fell in two of the weekend's biggest games. That leaves the SEC with only the soon-to-be No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs. In the Big Ten, No. 7 Indiana and No. 21 UCLA remained undefeated, and I'll definitely have more to say about all of this later.
But right now the Big 12 has as many undefeated teams as those two leagues combined. While the SEC and ACC added a ninth conference game this year (the Big Ten and Big 12 already had been), the Big 12, intentionally or not, created a schedule where last year's conference champion didn't have to play either BYU or Utah during the regular season. Of course BYU and Utah must play, because the Holy War is sacrosanct, but it wasn't scheduled until early November.
It's a schedule that made it possible for the three teams expected to be the best in the Big 12 to remain undefeated for as long as possible. That meant that as long as they kept winning, they'd all be appearing either in or near the top-10 of the College Football Playoff rankings when they started being released. And everything is going absolutely perfectly for the Big 12 right now.
As the Big Ten, SEC and ACC have eaten themselves alive, the league suddenly sits poised to get two teams into the 12-team field. If BYU manages to pull off an upset of Notre Dame next week, there's even a chance the league could get three in, even if it's minuscule due to Tech and Utah's nonconference schedules. But humor me here for a moment.
What if BYU beats Notre Dame, and then Notre Dame beats Miami and finishes 11-1. BYU goes on to finish 11-1 itself, losing on the road to Utah on Nov. 7. Meanwhile, Texas Tech finishes the regular season at 12-0.
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