Clay Travis' Starting 11: Alabama Dominates Again

What a day of college football!

I think this was the best day of the college football year, by far. From the moment games kicked off at noon eastern until after 11 eastern there were games coming down to the wire, scintillating plays, incredible quarterback performances, it was extraordinary all day, what makes college football, in my always humble opinion, the greatest sport in the country.

Games ended in the Travis household with my third grader asleep under a small blanket on a pillow in front of the television. When I picked him up to carry him to bed, he immediately woke up and said, "Did Washington or USC win, dad?"

So, kind of a perfect day, especially if you were a Huskies fan. Or a Tide fan or a Cowboy.

We'll get to all that in a moment, but we're down to nine national title contenders: Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Florida State, Texas, Washington and Oregon. That's it, that's your nine teams that can still win the title. (I know, I know, there are crazy scenarios where Ole Miss could find its way into the title mix, but that would require Alabama losing to both Kentucky and Auburn and I'm just not willing to even play out that scenario.)

If I had to pick right now, I'd stick with the four playoff teams I picked last week: Georgia, Michigan, Florida State and Oregon.

But buckle up for the next four weeks.

Let's dive into the Starting 11:

After LSU scored an opening touchdown to begin the third quarter and take a 28-21 lead -- be honest, how many of you thought LSU would win after this drive? -- the Tide outscored LSU 21-0, which was very similar to what they did against Tennessee in the second half, when Alabama outscored the Vols 27-0.

The one caveat of course, was Jayden Daniels getting knocked out of the game on what looked like a pretty dirty hit. (I was surprised they didn't flag Alabama for targeting on this hit. Especially given how much intent there is to protect the quarterback.)

And while you hate to point to one play and say it swung the game, I felt like Mason Taylor dropping what would have been, probably, a first down on 2nd and 17 with four minutes to play in the third quarter was massive. It was a tie game then and LSU would have been near midfield driving for a score. From there Bama got the ball back, on the first punt of the game for LSU, and took the lead. Then came a good break on the tipped ball interception, a 42-28 lead and the hit on Daniels that essentially ended the game.

I feel like LSU fans are bipolar right now with Brian Kelly. If Kelly wins out and finishes 9-3 in year two, that will be a tolerable season. But if somehow LSU loses another game this year, look out, LSU fans will be calling for Kelly's head immediately. Outside of Jimbo Fisher and A&M this might be the most unstable coach and fan relationship in the SEC right now.

As for Alabama, what can you say? Saban found a way to get a team that isn't very talented on offense, especially not compared to past Tide teams, back to Atlanta. (Again, I'm not willing to even consider a world where Alabama loses to both Kentucky and Auburn, the Tide will be in Atlanta.)

You've got to give credit to Jalen Milroe because, again, I really don't think this Alabama team is very talented on offense outside of him.

One looming issue for Alabama, by the way, what happens if Michigan or Ohio State win out, Florida State wins out, Washington wins out, and Texas wins the Big 12 at 12-1? I don't think Alabama would make the playoff even at 12-1 as the SEC champ. Granted this is probably not all likely to happen, but I can't remember a scenario where the 12-1 SEC champ wouldn't have been an automatic playoff participant in any other year of the four team playoff.

But I think I just gave you one.

First, I don't agree with the decision to go for the overtime touchdown on 4th and 4 by Kansas State. 4th and 1 or 2, maybe, but you pretty much have to throw on 4th and 4 and even with the snap issues on kicks Kansas State had during the game, I feel like the Wildcats were playing better than Texas for the entire second half. Plus, you'd just had three plays in a goal to go scenario and didn't score. If it's a shorter distance, fine, but that felt like a bad risk reward given the down and distance.

Second, it's Texas or bust for the Big 12's playoff hopes.

So can the Longhorns run the table?

The final three games are at TCU, at Iowa State, and against Texas Tech. Then you figure to get Oklahoma State, probably, in the Big 12 title game. Right now I wouldn't bet on Texas to win all four of those games.

So I'd bet on the Big 12 missing the playoff this year.

But, man, can you imagine if it came down to Texas and Alabama for the last spot and the Longhorns got in because of their week two win at Alabama?

Trust me, I know the only Purdue touchdown was a backbreaker -- I bet on the Wolverines to cover -- but the total yardage difference against a bad Purdue team wasn't egregious. Michigan put up 445 yards to Purdue's 269 and it was only 20-6 at halftime.

Fair or foul the game at Penn State and the game at the end of the year against Ohio State are both going to be seen as referendums on how much of an advantage Michigan gained from the spying allegations.

If the Wolverines trounce both opponents, there will be less of an argument that they were greatly aided by the sign stealing shenanigans.

But can you imagine if, for instance, Penn State routed Michigan next week? Or if Ohio State did? Honestly in a wacky way, Michigan is probably helped in public perception if they lose both games because the screams to punish them become louder the more they win.

Regardless, with this big of a game coming, it's going to be a wild week of news stories.

Lincoln Riley's curse is that his defense always fails him.

I'd love to see the stats for how many current coaches have lost more games than Lincoln Riley when their team has scored forty or more points. Is anyone else even close?

As for Washington, the Huskies need to go at least 2-1 in their final three games to ensure themselves a playoff berth with a Pac 12 title game win. Above I said I didn't like Texas's chances of running the table, I do like the Huskies chances of being 11-1 or better for the Pac 12 title game. Utah, at Oregon State, and Washington State are the final three. That Oregon State game will be really tough, but I think Washington will win both home games.

If that happens then the Pac 12 title game winner, presuming Oregon runs the table, which I think the Ducks will -- USC, at Arizona State, and Oregon State -- are the final three regular season match ups, will be in the playoff.

Given Alabama's SEC title game path to 12-1, the Seminoles probably need perfection to guarantee themselves a playoff spot. But Miami, North Alabama and at Florida aren't looking very difficult right now after Miami and Florida both lost as favorites this weekend.

And as much of a pleasant surprise as Louisville has been, does anyone really think they have the horses to beat FSU in the ACC title game?

I don't.

Florida State should be in the playoff.

These two teams have played for 114 years, even if they are in different conferences this game should still be played.

As a general rule, I don't mind expansion.

But I do think you need someone looking out for what makes college football unique, and it's rivalries like Bedlam.

There are several SEC teams that play out of conference rivals on the final week of the season: Florida vs. Florida State, South Carolina vs. Clemson, Kentucky vs. Louisville, it's a no brainer to play Oklahoma and Oklahoma State on that weekend in the years ahead.

But in the meantime, congrats to the Cowboys on a monster win to send the Sooners off to the SEC.

The Aggies are now 5-4 and just can't find a way to win on the road. Mississippi State and Abilene Christian come to Aggieland so being 7-4 with a game at LSU to finish the season is almost assured.

LSU figures to be a decent favorite in that game, but will the result even matter at that point? Probably not.

So my big question is this, who is way better than Jimbo Fisher that A&M can get?

Maybe Lance Leipold or Mike Elko win bigger than Jimbo in Aggieland, but neither of them have anywhere near the resume that Jimbo had when A&M hired him. And are you really going to pay Jimbo nearly a hundred million dollars and also hire a coach you're having to pay $75 million+ guaranteed to as well? Even for oil rich Aggie boosters that's an insane amount of money.

I thought Jimbo was a non brainer hire who would win big. I was wrong. So who's the coach that's guaranteed to win big for Texas A&M? Frankly, I don't know.

This may sound crazy, but could A&M make a run at Lane Kiffin just like Auburn did last year? Unless you see the contract yourself, it's hard to know the buyout terms, but I could see Kiffin making some sense, especially since you know he could win at a high level. But does Kiffin think he might be in line to get the Alabama job whenever Nick Saban retires? Maybe?

Again, I just don't see the guy who is a guaranteed home run.

Sure, you could do better than Jimbo, but what if you do worse?

As for Ole Miss, I don't think the Rebels have a path to Atlanta, yet again, but Lane Kiffin has a chance to get one of the biggest wins in Rebel history next week in Athens with virtually no pressure on his team at all. And even with a loss in Athens, Ole Miss should beat Louisiana-Monroe and Mississippi State to go 10-2 on the year.

That's a hell of an accomplishment and it would give Lane two ten win seasons in two of the past three years at Ole Miss.

I didn't expect Florida to be very good this year, but the 5-4 Gators are likely to be substantial underdogs in the final three games of the season: at LSU, at Missouri and at home against Florida State. If the Gators were to lose all three of those games then they would miss a bowl game in year two for Napier and finish with a losing record for a third straight season overall, something that hasn't happened since 1945 to 1947 in Gainesville.

I know Napier has a very good recruiting class right now, which is helping to forestall some of the Gator fan panic, but it's hard to watch this product on the field and not be nervous. Presently Napier is 6-8 in the SEC, 7-11 against the Power 5, and his only win against a rival program is this year against Tennessee. Otherwise he's lost every other rivalry game.

GAINESVILLE, FL - OCTOBER 07: Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier during the game between the Vanderbilt Commodores and the Florida Gators on October 7, 2023 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field in Gainesville, Fl. (Photo by David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Again, it's only year two, but what's ominous is this, every SEC coach that has won a championship since the SEC began a title game over thirty years ago has won at least nine games by year two. Right now, Napier will feel fortunate if he can get to 6-6.

As for the Razorbacks, honestly, doesn't this make you wonder how in the world they were 2-6 in the first place? This isn't a bad football team. They should be better than 3-6.

Here are your top ten teams:

Michigan +220
Georgia +240
Florida State +550
Ohio State +750
Alabama +900
Oregon +1000
Washington +1200
Texas +1500
Ole Miss 100-1
Penn State 100-1

Vegas has almost no faith in Penn State's title odds because the Nittany Lions have a small chance of winning the Big Ten East at this point. (Penn State pretty much has to win the three way tiebreak to have a chance at winning the Big Ten title.) I haven't looked at all the tiebreak scenarios in the event three teams ended up tied at 11-1 in the Big Ten East, but I just assume Ohio State wins every tiebreak in the Big Ten no matter what the rules are.

(The actual tiebreak scenarios are which team's three Big Ten West opponents end up with the best record. What a ridiculous way that would be to pick the Big Ten East winner. Honestly, divisions still existing in college football, especially when they are this unbalanced, are just indefensible. But right now everyone's three Big Ten West opponents have similar records.)

As for the Heisman, I would bet right now it will come down to whether Oregon or Washington wins the Pac 12 title. If Oregon does, Bo Nix will win the Heisman, if Washington does, Michael Penix will.

To be honest, I don't even see how anyone could have any other teams in their top ten.

Now you might disagree with my ranking order, that's fair, but these are the teams with the ten best resumes in college football right now.

The top six SEC teams are pretty much set at this point in the season. It would take some major upsets for me to change these substantially. You can argue for some teams to be adjusted in the top six, but these are the six best teams. I also think the bottom five are pretty well set too. Honestly, I kind of feel like all of these rankings are pretty set at this point.