by Collin Lindsay of the Great Blue North Draft Report
Conference Championship Week Preview
Before getting into the actual game previews, just a few comments related to college football overall. One is that the conference championship games have become almost an anachronism. Of course, they’re something of a cash cow for the conferences, but they don’t mean much any more. Most champions are going to make the CFP playoff field anyway and conference champions no longer get an automatic first-round bye. At the same time, this year for example, the SEC and Big XII could actually see the loser of their championship game bumped from the 12-team field, while if 7-5 Duke wins the ACC, that conference, which is already struggling to stay relevant in the college football world, will be excluded from the playoffs entirely.
Fact is that conferences don’t really matter all that much anymore other than for the fact that how much TV money each school makes depends on which conference they’re in. But the fact remains that the goal of college football now is to make the CFP playoffs and it doesn’t take a statistical genius to look at the current CFP rankings and see teams ranked almost exclusively based on their record, or more to the point how many losses they have almost regardless of who they lost to over the season or for that matter who they beat.
One of our pet peeves about the whole business is that teams that lose their conference championship game get heavily penalized in the rankings. For example, this year, Alabama will almost certainly be bumped out of the playoffs if they lose to 3rd-ranked Georgia in the SEC title game. And they’ll likely be bumped in favor of a team that didn’t play in a championship game at all. I really believe to be fair the final CFP rankings should be based on every team’s regular schedule only.
With all that said, there are plenty of good prospects the New York Giants will certainly be looking at in this week’s conference championship games. And we start with a couple of guys that the Giants will not be considering at all in QBs Fernando Mendoza of Indiana and Alabama’s Ty Simpson, the two highest-rated passers likely to enter this year’s draft. They’ll both be playing really good defenses this weekend and how well they fare on Saturday may go along well in determining a) whether they even enter the draft as each has a year of eligibility remaining and b) how high they go come April such that they’d give the Giants some trade down options because this may be the year for the Giants to trade down if there ever was one.
Needless to say the Giants may be most interested in the 2nd-ranked Hoosiers’ game against #1 Ohio State (8 PM ET; FOX) as the Buckeyes’ defense features FS Caleb Downs (#2, 6-0, 205) and LB Arvell Reese (#8, 6-3, 245), while LB Sonny Styles (#0, 6-4, 245) and DT Kayden McDonald (#98, 6-3, 330) could very well be on their 2nd-round short list. In fact, the Buckeyes could actually have a third opening round target for the Giants in WR Carnell Tate (#17, 6-2, 195), who appears to have vaulted to the top of more than one team around the league’s receiver ranking. Meanwhile, other Buckeyes to watch include rising, legit 2nd-round prospect for the Giants, DE Caden Curry (#92, 6-3, 260), who leads the team with 9 sacks on the season, TE Max Klare (#86, 6-4, 245), and CBs Jermaine Matthews (#7,5-11, 190) and Davison Igbinosun (#4, 6-2, 190). Indiana also has a player that could interest the Giants early on the second day of the draft if they didn’t take a receiver in the first in WR Elijah Sarratt (#13, 6-2, 215), while veteran MLB Aiden Fisher (#4, 6-1, 235) and CB D’Angelo Ponds (#5, 5-9, 195) could be later round targets.
Its actually hard to see anyone from either #3 Georgia or #9 Alabama, who play for the SEC title at 4 PM ET on ABC, being a Giants first-round pick, but each team has a number of potential targets including LT Kadyn Proctor (#74, 6-6, 365), DE LT Overton (#22, 6-5, 280), a prototype 3-4 DE, LB Deontae Lawson (#0, 6-1, 230), NT Tim Keenan (#96, 6-2, 320), and WR Germi Bernard (#5, 6-1, 205) of Alabama and LB CJ Allen (#3, 6-1, 235), DT Christen Miller (#52, 6-3, 310), WR Zachariah Branch (#1, 5-10, 180), the former USC speedster who doubles as one of the most electric kick returners in the country, and CB Daylen Everette (#6, 6-0, 190) of Georgia.
It is also pretty much a given that the Giants don’t take anyone from Big XII championship match-up between 4th-ranked Texas Tech and #11 BYU (Noon ET; ABC) at least until the 3rd day, but the Red Raiders do have at least one interesting guy people might want to check out in star DE David Bailey (#31, 6-2, 250), an explosive edge rusher who led the country with 12.5 sacks this fall and is starting to generate plenty of first-round buzz. In fact, if he tests well this winter, nobody should be surprised if Bailey ends up with a top 5-10 grade and maybe ends up pushing another player closer to the Giants. Meanwhile, Tech LB Jake Rodriquez (#10, 6-1, 235), who leads the country with 7 forced fumbles and rock-solid NT Lee Hunter (#2, 6-3, 335), along with BYU LB Jack Kelly (#17, 6-2, 245) could interest the Giants if they were to slip into the early third-day range.
And while we ragged on Duke, which is barely bowl eligible and shouldn’t be anywhere near the CFP playoffs, but is in the ACC championship game against #17 Virginia (8 PM ET; ABC), the Blue Devils actually have a player that the Giants might very well look at as a legit second-round prospect in All-America CB Chandler Rivers (#0, 5-10, 185).