The lineal titles are, belatedly, updated, and I think I’m somewhat lucky that none of the college titles are being defended until after the new year.
The Golden Bowl tournament, however, is probably not going to happen this year, and maybe ever. Somehow it has always managed to monopolize a lot of my time during every winter break, and the process of selection chews up a lot of time and brainpower just as the fall quarter at school starts ramping up towards finals. Perhaps once I’m finally out of school I’ll start it up again – heaven knows we’ll probably be no closer to a playoff then. I do want to say a few things about how the bracket would have shaken out:
The top six teams in the RPI are all from the SEC or Big 12, with attendant effects on selection, including Oklahoma probably getting a top-three seed, a possible third SEC at-large in Alabama, and all other conferences getting squeezed out of at-larges, including Stanford and Ohio State. Had I decided to cap at-larges at 2 per conference, they and Michigan State would have been key contenders.
Thanks in part to my Rose Bowl Semifinal rule, Oregon is hard-pressed to even get a first-round home game; the Pac-10 was weak this year. Wisconsin barely stood out among a field of Oregon, TCU, Boise, and V-Tech.
Finally, Connecticut actually barely got edged by UCF for the 13 seed, so the 3 would be a lot less valuable than the 2 this year, and the 4 substantially more valuable than the 5.
For the Playoff Pictures, anything that’s not self-explanatory is in the notes. Thick borders cannot be crossed, and I didn’t bother to research common-games tiebreakers for playoff positioning.
| DIVISION LEADERS |
WILD CARD | NOTES |
| SOUTH 4  9-6 |
5 11-4 |
ONLY AFC SOUTH CONTENDERS HAVE NOT CLINCHED PLAYOFF SPOT |
 8-7 |
||
| WEST 3  10-5 |
6 10-5 |
|
| CLINCHED | ||
| NORTH 2  11-4 |
STILL POSSIBLE: | |
| 11-4 |
511-5 |
|
| EAST 1  13-2 |
611-5 |
|
| CLINCHED |
AFC Playoff Picture| DIVISION LEADERS |
WILD CARD | NOTES |
| WEST 4  7-8 |
5 11-4 |
PACKERS BEAT GIANTS AND WIN COMMON GAMES OVER BUCS |
 6-9 |
||
| EAST 3  10-5 |
6 9-6 |
|
 9-6 |
||
| NORTH 2  11-4 |
9-6 |
|
| CLINCHED |  9-6 |
|
| SOUTH 1  12-3 |
||
| 11-4 |
||
| OUT ON TIEBREAKERS CLINCHED PLAYOFF SPOT | ||
NFC Playoff Picture