While the main focus of the break from school was for Thanksgiving, this was also a crucial time for college football as there were several crucial games played the weekend after Thanksgiving. Some of the crucial games were the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry game, the Baylor-TCU rivalry game, the Notre Dame-Stanford rivalry game, and the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State rivalry game. Theses games are crucial as Clemson, Baylor, TCU, Notre Dame, Stanford, Oklahoma, and even Oklahoma State are all vying for a spot in the second annual college football playoff that features the top four teams in the country and gives them a chance to play for a national championship. 

How the college football playoff system works is that there is a committee made up of several coaches in college football that meet and discuss who they think the four best teams are based off of multiple factors such as who they have played and beaten, how many points they have scored, how many points they have surrendered, etc. So far the top candidates for the four spots include Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Iowa since they are ranked in that order. However, huge league championship games featuring Alabama against Florida, Michigan State against Iowa, and Clemson against North Carolina will help the committee decide who should be in and who should not be based off of who wins the league titles. The cases that are made is that if Clemson beats North Carolina they should be a lock for a playoff spot especially since they are undefeated, if Michigan State beats Iowa they should be in even though at the time Iowa was ranked fourth and Michigan State was ranked fifth, and if Alabama beats Florida they will get a playoff spot as well. 

However the committee has to decide if North Carolina, Florida, and Iowa were to pull of the huge upsets if North Carolina, Florida, Iowa, and other teams like Stanford deserve playoff sports over a one loss Clemson team, a two loss Alabama team, Oklahoma which doesn't have a conference title game, and even keep Iowa in the playoff picture even though they have not played the big ten's best and toughest teams. It is always interesting to hear what the committee thinks in these situations and how they end up ranking the teams. 

The Iowa Hawkeyes were definitely a surprise this year making it to the big ten title game undefeated, which almost nobody predicted at the start of the college football season. It is crazy to think that back in Iowa the fans have really embraced the team and its success by saying that the football team's success was the biggest thing going on in the whole state and was one of the best things to ever happen in the state of Iowa. The crazy part is to to think that more people cared about what the Iowa football team was doing than what was actually happening on the news. I know that sports fans are passionate about their team, but it was surprising to me when people are saying that in the history of the state that this was the biggest and best thing to ever happen. It's crazy to think that one sports team can have more importance to people and have a bigger impact in their lives than anything else.