Championship Weekend, Saturday picks: Will Ohio State get in?

Shortly before suffering a season-ending ankle injury, Ohio State QB J.T. Barrett broke the Big Ten conference record for TDs in a season.

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There may not have been a more impactful injury in sports last week than the Ohio State Buckeyes loss of star QB J.T. Barrett. After taking the reins of QB Braxton Miller in the preseason with high expectations, Barrett defied the doubters by breaking countless Big Ten and Ohio State passing records.  And now he’s gone for the season. The fact that the Buckeyes were left out of the Top 4 in the College Football Playoffs spoke volumes about what the Selection Committee thinks about Ohio State without Barrett. All eyes will be on QB Cardale Jones as he gets his first start with the team in the Big Ten Championship against Wisconsin.  Winning won’t be enough for Ohio State to jump over TCU or Florida State into the College Football Playoffs. Jones will need to show pure domination in order to give Ohio State a spot.

Here are the picks for Championship Weekend of College Football:

#3 TCU over Iowa State – Expect TCU to win this game convincingly and clinch a piece of the Big XII conference title.

#6 Baylor over #9 Kansas State – Speaking of the Big XII title, the Bears also have a big case to make in their quest for the College Football Playoffs and will do their best to run up the score against Kansas State.

#20 Oklahoma over Oklahoma State – It seems like last season when Oklahoma was relevant in the College Football Playoff rankings.  Now they won’t even get a share of the Big XII title.

#1 Alabama over #16 Missouri in SEC Championship – Far better teams with far better QBs have fallen to Alabama’s might than Missouri and Maty Mauk. With Alabama QB Blake Sims throwing to Amari Cooper and letting T.J. Yeldon and Derrick Henry go to work on the ground, Alabama will yawn its way to yet another SEC Championship.

#4 Florida State over #11 Georgia Tech in ACC Championship – One of the things that makes Jameis Winston great is that he knows how to respond to adversity.  Georgia Tech is arguably the biggest adversary Florida State has had since last year’s BCS Championship game, so we have every right to expect a similar result: a comeback win featuring 4th quarter domination.

#13 Wisconsin over #5 Ohio State in Big Ten Championship – Cardale Jones has had less than a week to prepare while Wisconsin brings the best RB in the nation to the table in Melvin Gordon. This will be a close game decided on the ground with Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer taking the ball out of Jones’ hand late in the game, ultimately to his team’s doom.

#22 Boise State over Fresno State in Mountain West Championship – If this was last year’s Fresno State team with David Carr they’d deserve a chance, but Boise State has made mincemeat of their last seven opponents: Including Fresno State.