Butterfly Effect: What if Justin Fields never transferred from Georgia to Ohio State?
By John Buhler
Is there another different playoff team besides Georgia?
Not having a buzzsaw in the Big Ten like Ohio State with Fields at quarterback may have given the Pac-12 more clout and made the Big 12 look slightly more dangerous. If Utah ended up beating Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship, the Utes may have gotten in. Oregon might have had an outside shot at it if the Ducks didn’t slip up against Arizona State.
The winner of the Big 12 Championship between Oklahoma and Baylor may have been more likely than Utah or Oregon to make the playoff, all things considered. So we’re potentially looking at one of those four teams as the No. 4 seed in the College Football Playoff.
Oklahoma would have been toast vs. LSU. Same thing for Utah. Baylor had the defense to make it interesting, though Oregon may have had the best shot at knocking off the Bayou Bengals. Overall, LSU would have still won the national championship but would have gotten a more compelling matchup had they played someone else other than Oklahoma in the national semifinal.