Party Crashers: 3 college football teams primed to play spoiler
By John Buhler
(7-1). player. 838. Pick Analysis. ACC. North Carolina Tar Heels. 2. Scouting Report
North Carolina should win the Coastal, and just might beat Clemson in Charlotte
No doubt about it, the ACC is probably getting a team into the playoff this season, but what if I told you that team does not have to be Clemson? Although the Tigers have the head-to-head tiebreaker over seemingly every rival of note in the Atlantic, North Carolina is quietly taking care of business over in the Coastal. The Tar Heels’ only loss on the season is to independent Notre Dame.
North Carolina still has four more conference games left, including at Wake Forest and at home to close out the regular season vs. North Carolina State. Should the Tar Heels win out, they will be 11-1 (8-0) and a very dangerous ACC Coastal champion. Clemson is still undefeated at 8-0, but the Tigers have been challenged by a few conference rivals up to this point. UNC could stun them.
Should North Carolina win out, get to Charlotte and beat Clemson, the Tar Heels are playoff bound.
Pick Analysis. 1. player. Scouting Report. Big Ten. (7-1). Illinois Fighting Illini. 807
If the was ever a Big Ten West winner to win in Indianapolis, why not Illinois?
This might be the most shocking development of the entire college season. The Big Ten West frontrunner is Bret Bielema’s Illinois Fighting Illini. They are 7-1 overall and 4-1 in conference play. Although their only loss on the year is not great, it was by three on the road at Indiana over Labor Day Weekend. Since then, Illinois has rattled off six wins in a row. These Fighting Illini are rolling!
What makes this interesting, besides Bielema being the one who led to Wisconsin firing Paul Chryst, is Illinois may not need to win out to win the Big Ten. The Illini must go on the road to play Michigan in the Big House. If the Illini win in Ann Arbor, they can win the rematch in Indianapolis, or even beat Ohio State. A close loss in Ann Arbor could give them confidence to win in Indy anyway.
Illinois is cruising right now and the Fighting Illini may have enough steam to play ultimate spoiler.
Differences we could see between AP and CFP rankings. dark. Next
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