College Football Playoff 2015: How would an eight-team format play out?
By John Buhler
No. 6 Stanford Cardinal vs. No. 7 Ohio State Buckeyes (Cotton Bowl)
Because of the fictitious expansion of the 2015 College Football Playoff to eight teams instead of four, two National Quarterfinals upsets would give us the No. 6 Stanford Cardinal vs. the No. 7 Ohio State Buckeyes in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic instead of Michigan State and Alabama.
This game will feature two of the country’s best tailbacks in Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey and Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliot. Getting to see two great coaches in Stanford’s David Shaw take on Ohio State’s Urban Meyer could have set up a potentially great chess match in Dallas between these two.
Both teams that weren’t supposed to make it this far actually did, so the underdog card in this game won’t factor into the final score, as it isn’t an advantage for either team. It would take another Heisman moment from McCaffrey to elevate the Cardinal to the National Championship Game in Glendale, but ultimately Ohio State has Urban Meyer and that may prove too much for Stanford in this hypothetical matchup.
Ohio State would have had Las Vegas on their side and probably would have opened up as at least a seven-point favorite in this game, despite being the lower seed to Stanford in this rendition of the Cotton Bowl. However, since Urban Meyer and much of this current Buckeyes team already won it all last year, that gives Ohio State the advantage and would win this game by two scores.
The Ohio State Buckeyes would face the Oklahoma Sooners in the eight-team College Football Playoff Championship Game in Glendale, Arizona, a No. 4 vs. No. 7 matchup.
Prediction: Ohio State Buckeyes 30, Stanford Cardinal 19
Next: 2015 National Championship