If you’re a Texas A&M fan (or an SEC fan hoping for 2 Playoff teams), I totally get the angst over Ohio State.

Hey, I wouldn’t want to stand in the Buckeyes’ way, either.

Justin Fields and The Backup Bucks just hung 52 on the team that ended the B1G West champion’s Playoff bid last week.

Meanwhile, Texas A&M needed a fortunate tipped-pass TD to rally past an Auburn team that lost earlier this season to South Carolina.

The Playoff race is coming more into focus, so of course that’s going to dominate the 10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after another Saturday down South in and around the SEC.

10. This a Playoff résumé? Come on, man

I know a lot of you are into numbers. I see the tweets. You can’t watch every game, but you devour every box score and then use those numbers to shape your narrative, context and eye-test be damned. I admire the devotion.

I watch games. Just about every SEC game and plenty of others. Those games shape my analysis.

Watching games is why I have said, for weeks, with much certainty, context and confidence that a certain SEC team does not belong in the Playoff. (I’ll admit there is one scenario — and only one scenario — that kinda, sorta makes sense, but the resulting semifinal matchup is so utterly unappealing I’m trying not to think about it.)

Rather than worry about things I can’t control, today, I’m going to speak your language. I’m going to use numbers to destroy this team’s Playoff narrative once and for all. I apologize in advance for all feelings hurt.

In the case of the Plaintiff (hereinafter described as “Jimbo Doe”) vs. the Playoff Selection Committee, I present the following evidence for consideration as to why Jimbo Doe has no grounds for inclusion at the expense of an undefeated Ohio State team:

  • Vanderbilt allowed its fewest points of the season to Jimbo Doe.
  • Jimbo Doe beat Vanderbilt by 5. Only Kentucky’s margin of victory (3) was smaller.
  • Four teams scored more points against Mississippi State than Jimbo Doe.
  • Five teams scored more points against LSU than Jimbo Doe.
  • Alabama scored 45 points against LSU — in the first half! Jimbo Doe scored 1 offensive TD against those same Tigers just 1 week ago.
  • Georgia beat Auburn by 21. Alabama beat Auburn by 29. South Carolina beat Auburn by 8 (… and later fired its head coach). Jimbo Doe beat Auburn by 11 Saturday and wants you to be impressed — even though Jimbo Doe scored the go-ahead TD on a deflected pass that should have been intercepted.
  • Jimbo Doe lost a regular-season game by 28. The largest margin of defeat by any Playoff team is 23. (That team, Georgia, responded with a 21-point win over that same team in the SEC Championship Game. Jimbo Doe will have no such opportunity to atone.) No other Playoff team has lost a regular-season game by more than 14.
  • Entering Saturday, Jimbo Doe’s offense ranked 24th among 65 Power 5 teams in scoring. Twenty-fourth. The current top 4 teams in the Playoff poll rank No. 1, No. 11, No. 2 and No. 4, respectively, in scoring among Power 5 teams.
  • Only 4 times in 18 Playoff games did the winning team fail to score 30 points. Jimbo Doe has only scored 30+ points 4 times this season.

Ah, yes, counselor, but what about Jimbo Doe’s vaunted defense? You’ve completely failed in your mission to expose Playoff fraud by ignoring the very unit most responsible for this domination!

Noted, sir. May we also remind the jury:

  • Jimbo Doe allowed an average of 45 points per game to the 2 Playoff-caliber teams it faced.
  • Jimbo Doe was outscored 90-65 in those 2 games.
  • Jimbo Doe allowed 4 passing TDs in each of those 2 games.
  • Jimbo Doe allowed both QBs to top 310 yards passing.
  • Jimbo Doe allowed 11 TD drives out of 18 possessions in those 2 games (61.1%). It allowed points on 13 of 18 (72.2%) of those drives.
  • Out of a possible 1,219 yards that could have been gained against Jimbo Doe in those 2 games, Jimbo Doe allowed 957 (78.5%).
  • (Insert your “defense rests” joke here.)

I’m sorry, Jimbo Doe. It’s nothing personal. I like your team. I vouched for your team all offseason and said you deserved to be ranked in the preseason top 10 when others scoffed at the notion. You deserve to be rewarded with a warm bowl in Florida. But I’ve seen Playoff teams. More important, I’ve seen teams selected to the Playoff that had no business being there.

Case dismissed.

9. Did the ACC protect Notre Dame and Clemson to help ensure 2 Playoff teams?

Of course.

Did you expect the league to do anything other than that?

How is this even an issue?

When the SEC redid its schedule, did Greg Sankey add Florida to Alabama’s schedule? No.

The SEC largely protected its interests. It added the following games to its 3 most likely Playoff contenders:

  • Alabama: added Missouri and Kentucky
  • Florida: added Arkansas and Texas A&M
  • Georgia: added Arkansas and Mississippi State

The SEC couldn’t have been any kinder to Alabama and Georgia. Texas A&M, which had the easiest pre-pandemic schedule in the conference, added Florida. That was, by far, the most challenging game added to any contender. The SEC had little choice. A&M’s schedule already included Vanderbilt and South Carolina and also added Tennessee.

The ACC, remember, redid its pre-pandemic schedules too. It absolutely could have scrapped Clemson-Notre Dame — other games were eliminated — but the ACC decided to keep it.

ACC coaches were upset this week that the league scrapped next week’s games for Clemson and Notre Dame, guaranteeing both would make the ACC title game. (Technically, Clemson didn’t have a game scheduled, but there was talk of making up the FSU game on Dec. 12.)

They’re just mad, bro.

Clemson and Notre Dame proved all year that they’re the best the ACC had. One more game against bad teams wasn’t going to change that.

This year already has been complicated enough. Better to put the best teams in bubble wrap for a week and ensure you actually get an ACC Championship Game.

The ACC absolutely made the right move.

8. Speaking of which … it’s not too late for the SEC, either

Greg Sankey admonished the ACC’s actions, but he’d be wise to follow suit.

Florida and Alabama wrapped up division titles Saturday. And how.

Their Dec. 12 makeup games could not be any more meaningless. Other than chasing individual awards that will be decided in Atlanta, anyway, there is absolutely nothing positive to be gained from having either team play. (And if one plays, the other has to play.)

Can you imagine the outrage if either team is called for a 2nd-half targeting penalty next week and that player has to miss the opening half of the SEC title game?

Divisions have been won. Put your champs in bubble wrap for a week and ensure you actually get an SEC Championship Game.

7. Barry Alvarez, you are my hero

Finally, we found somebody in the Big Ten with an ounce of common sense.

We all know it should have never come to this, but give Alvarez credit for finally showing the necessary flexibility in regards to Ohio State’s schedule and the B1G’s own ludicrous 6-game mandate for championship eligibility.

No other league set a minimum-game standard. Nobody forced the B1G to do so, either.

Flexibility has been the key.

The SEC has been flexible with rearranging its schedules multiple times, even on the fly.

The ACC, obviously, has too.

Good for Alvarez for ensuring the B1G wasn’t left behind.

6. And, yes, Ohio State is going to the Playoff

SEC fans might not want to hear this, either, but the simple truth is the Big Ten saved the 2020 college football season because the Big Ten legitimized the Playoff chase.

Sure, the jokes write themselves: No B1G team has won a Playoff game since 2014. The 2017 and 2018 Playoffs didn’t need the B1G, either, so who cares whether they play in 2020?

The difference, obviously, is the B1G did play in 2017 and 2018. It just didn’t play well enough.

Trying to legitimize a 2020 national champion without the B1G participating would have been like Major League Baseball crowning a World Series champion without the AL Central and NL Central participating. You could joke that no NL Central or AL Central team has made the World Series since the Cubs beat the Indians in 2016, so who cares, right? Wrong.

We still might get 2 ACC teams and 2 SEC teams in the Playoff. If it works out that way, fine. At least the B1G had a chance.

Ultimately, because of that very fact — that the B1G decided at the last minute to re-engage — I’ve long thought the B1G would be rewarded with 1 of the 4 spots.

Ohio State has made it a no-brainer. And it absolutely widened its gap over No. 5 Texas A&M on Saturday.

The No. 4 Buckeyes were decimated, down 3 offensive line starters, other key contributors, their head coach, etc., and still went on the road and obliterated a Michigan State team that ended Northwestern’s Playoff hopes last week.

The Buckeyes don’t need the B1G title to enhance their résumé — a win over a ranked Wisconsin or Iowa team during Championship Week would be just as effective as blasting Northwestern — but thanks to Alvarez, it looks like they’re going to get the chance.

That’s great for college football.

I’d much rather see undefeated Ohio State in the Playoff than the possibility of more rematches.

Do you really want to see Notre Dame vs. Clemson III?

In a shortened season where nobody has played anybody from another Power 5 conference, a tri-match is the last thing I want to see to decide a national champion.

5. The top 5 of Power 5

The best of the week …

1A. Justin Fields had his 2nd career 100-100 double-double. He finished with 199 yards passing and 2 TDs and a career-high 104 yards rushing and 2 more 2 TDs.

1B. Trey Sermon, who had 5 100-yard games at Oklahoma, had his first Saturday at Ohio State. He led the Buckeyes with 112 yards, more than half of which came on a 64-yard TD run.

2. What a cool moment for Tom Allen and Indiana.

https://twitter.com/jimcoyleISB/status/1335371745008738309

3. Jalen Wydermyer is a bad man. The Texas A&M tight end was largely uncoverable Saturday. He finished with 8 catches for 89 yards and 2 TDs — including the go-ahead snag off the deflected pass. That was the 3rd time in the past 4 games that Wydermyer caught 2 TD passes. He’s just a sophomore, too.

4. Everybody who played or coached offense in the Battle Line Rivalry. Special shoutout, though, to Larry Rountree III, who had 185 yards and 3 rushing TDs in Mizzou’s dramatic comeback victory. And how about Arkansas coach Sam Pittman going for 2 and the lead after scoring a TD in the final minute. Yessirr! An extra point would have tied the score at 47. A failure to convert would have meant a near-automatic loss. Arkansas converted to go up 48-47, but Mizzou drove 60 yards to set up the game-winning field goal as time expired.

5. Kyle Trask: Florida’s Heisman candidate threw 4 more TD passes Saturday. He has 38 this season — 1 shy of Danny Wuerffel’s school record. With at least 3 more games, Trask has a chance to join Joe Burrow (60 in 2019) as the only QBs in SEC history to reach 50 TD passes in a season.

4. The 4 Playoff teams are …

1. Alabama, 2. Notre Dame, 3. Clemson, 4. Ohio State.

No need to change the top 4. Yet.

I have Florida at No. 5, Cincinnati at No. 6, Georgia at No. 7 and Texas A&M at No. 8. I realize the committee isn’t dropping Texas A&M that far and still might keep the Aggies at No. 5, but after watching every snap these teams have played, I’m convinced Florida and Georgia (with JT Daniels) are better. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter where the committee ranks Florida this week or next. The Gators will be in the Playoff if they beat Alabama in the SEC Championship Game.

This gets interesting if Alabama and/or Notre Dame lose in their respective conference title game. But both still have a better case than Texas A&M, err, Jimbo Doe.

(The only way I can see Texas A&M making the Playoff is if Alabama, Notre Dame and Ohio State win their conference title games and Cincinnati loses. But then you’re looking at a 1 vs. 4 semifinal rematch of Alabama vs. Texas A&M, with no hope of a different or more compelling outcome. That alone would be reason enough to reward an undefeated Cincinnati team or take a long look at a 1-loss Indiana team whose only setback was by 7 to Ohio State. Can you image 2 B1G teams in the Playoff? Holy 2020.)

3. Sarah Fuller’s story, to be cont’d …

No, she didn’t get to kick Saturday. Vanderbilt’s game against Georgia was postponed. Maybe she won’t get to kick at all if Vandy’s specialists return from COVID protocol. We’ll see. But watch this and tell me this isn’t one of the best stories in college football this season.

If she doesn’t get to kick in a game, I’d humbly suggest a made-for-TV kicking challenge: Jason Whitlock, a former college football player who mocked this as a publicity stunt, vs. Sarah Fuller.

Let Whitlock pick the distance, goal post and hash.

And then when he loses, let Whitlock cut a check to the Play Like a Girl charity in Nashville.

2. Life with Bo explained in 2 plays

Auburn OC Chad Morris couldn’t have dialed this up any better …

Misfires are nothing new for Nix. He’s always struggled with accuracy. I know a lot of y’all love to pile on Morris, but there’s not a lot you can do when your QB is this wildly inconsistent:

That’s 70 inaccurate targets to Auburn’s top 2 weapons. Fittingly, he finished Saturday’s loss with a slider in the grass aimed in Williams’ general direction.

Give the kid some credit, though. He had several big runs, and this Johnny Manziel impersonation might be his signature play of the year.

1. Is Alabama’s offense better than LSU’s 2019 offense?

That’s where we’re at.

Honestly, I’m ready to give the Tide the edge. As unstoppable, historic and record-breaking as LSU was, Alabama somehow looks even more explosive.

The most combined points scored in an SEC title game is 101. Auburn beat Missouri 59-42 in 2013.

I’ll be stunned if that record still stands when the confetti falls on Dec. 19.

Can Alabama become the first SEC team to reach 60 points in a title game?

Until Saturday, I hadn’t really considered it feasible. Now, fully embracing the spirit of overreacting, I’m wondering how the Gators could hold them to anything less.