College Football Playoff 2020: Simulating a 16-team bracket

16-team College Football Playoff first round: 6 Oklahoma vs. 11 Indiana

Say there is a hypothetical world in which the College Football Playoff selection committee doesn’t look at final records but, instead, looks at the teams who are playing the best football in the country and selects the top four to have a shot at the National Championship based on that. If that was the case, there’s a strong argument that the Oklahoma Sooners would be in the field.

Coming into this season, there was always a chance that the Sooners would experience some growing pains as redshirt freshman quarterback Spencer Rattler took over the offense. And we saw that play out as Lincoln Riley’s team essentially took two losses against inferior opponents, which cost them their shot at the playoff.

But after beating Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship Game, it’s clear that this team has gotten better throughout the year, especially with Rhamondre Stevenson and Ronnie Perkins re-entering the fray. Unfortunately, the opposite is true for the Indiana Hoosiers with the injury to quarterback Michael Penix Jr.

Penix masked a lot of the flaws on the Indiana offense and, while they have a good defense, they aren’t a match for the talent that the Sooners can throw at them — especially if their offense isn’t able to sustain drives. This should be a game that is never in doubt for Oklahoma.

Oklahoma wins, 38-17