BUCKHANNON – So the Big XII Conference gave Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy their Coach of the Year award instead of WVU’s Neal Brown.

I know a large portion of the WVU fanbase wants Brown gone, but he really should have been given this award. They were one knockdown of being 9-3 and 7-2 in the conference for a team that was picked last in the preseason poll.

Gundy did turn around the Cowboys after a 2-2 start and has his team in the conference championship but still lost by 26 to South Alabama and 42 to UCF. That is Coach of the Year material?

The final week of the college football season is finally upon us, and we can now talk about the college football playoffs and who is going to make it.

Here are the eight teams remaining, by ranking, that still have a legitimate shot to crack the top four. 1. Georgia. 2. Michigan, 3. Washington, 4. Florida State, 5. Oregon, 6. Ohio State, 7. Texas and 8. Alabama.

All I keep hearing from the talking heads is chaos here and chaos there over all this. I get it, you are going to use hyperbole to sell your product, but when you break it down, there really isn’t that much chaos at all.

If the top four teams all win, all four are in. Case closed, doesn’t seem like any chaos at all. The Washington-Oregon winner is in, and the loser is out. That is cut-and-dry. No chaos there.

Ohio State is the only top eight team that doesn’t play but will leapfrog the loser of Washington-Oregon and will likely take the fourth spot if Louisville beats Florida State and assuming Alabama doesn’t upset Georgia and move ahead of them.

Texas seems like a huge long shot, as beating Oklahoma State really does nothing for them to improve their resume. They have to hope that Florida State loses and somehow they jump idle Ohio State, which I don’t see happening.

The only chaos I really see out of all of this is, what do you do with Alabama if they beat Georgia? Georgia will remain in even if they lose, and as I said, the winner of Oregon-Washington is in. Michigan isn’t losing to Iowa. Do you jump a one-loss Alabama team over an unbeaten ACC champion in Florida State? Probably not. Interesting, yes. Chaotic, no.

Boy did I come up short in the Showdown standings with a dreadful 3-4 week. Brian went 5-2 to take a two-game lead on me with just this week remaining. I can tie him as we have two games different this week. And congratulations to Katie on winning the week with a 6-1 record.