The College Football World Cup: Northwestern(?!) wins its group over Clemson

Northwestern is an NCAA 14 juggernaut, apparently. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Northwestern is an NCAA 14 juggernaut, apparently. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Welcome to the 2018 College Football World Cup. A week ago, we set the field. You can look at how we did it here.

Now it’s time to reveal the group stage results via NCAA 14. There weren’t too many surprises, although Group G delivered. Northwestern went undefeated at the expense of Clemson and LSU. Sorry Tigers.

Since there are no ties in college football any longer we were going to follow similar World Cup tiebreaking procedures if we had two teams finish 2-1 in a group and needed to break a tie. Point differential would be the first tiebreaker and points allowed would be the second.

We didn’t need them. Each group ended up with one 3-0 team and one 2-1 team. We figured the odds of that happening were pretty low.

Anyway, let’s get to the groups. We’ll reveal the knockout rounds next week and unveil the champion.

Group A

Apparently Auburn is good. Or they were in the group stage. The Tigers cruised. The other Tigers didn’t. Mississippi State sneaks in as the No. 2 seed from this group.

Results
Auburn 58, Stanford 17
Miss State 30, Memphis 14
Stanford 38, Memphis 9
Auburn 18, Mississippi State 7
Auburn 41, Memphis 19
Miss State 41, Stanford 13

Standings
Auburn 3-0
Mississippi State 2-1
Stanford 1-2
Memphis 0-3

Group B

Congratulations, Central Florida fans. Your team gets an opportunity to play for the national championship. And you get to play Auburn in the round of 16.

Results
Oklahoma 28, UCF 15
Michigan St 36, Fresno State 10
UCF 32, Fresno State 17
Oklahoma 48, Michigan State 6
Oklahoma 49, Fresno State 10
UCF 30, Michigan State 20

Standings
Oklahoma 3-0
UCF 2-1
Michigan State 1-2
Fresno State 0-3

Group C

Toledo?! The Rockets sneak in as the second-place Group C team with a 34-10 drubbing of Notre Dame. Brian Kelly is on the hot seat.

Results
Toledo 41, North Texas 38
Ohio State 17, Notre Dame 6
Ohio State 66, North Texas 24
Toledo 34, Notre Dame 10
Ohio State 32, Toledo 13
Notre Dame 44, North Texas 3

Standings
Ohio State 3-0
Toledo 2-1
Notre Dame 1-2
North Texas 0-3

Group D

Wisconsin and Washington made this pretty straightforward. A Wisconsin-Washington game would be pretty fun to watch in real life. Maybe we’ll get it in the 2019 College Football Playoff.

Results
Wisconsin 22, Washington 19
Florida Atlantic 34, Army 21
Washington 19, Florida Atlantic 7
Wisconsin 43, Army 10
Washington 37, Army 10
Wisconsin 30, Florida Atlantic 17

Standings
Wisconsin 3-0
Washington 2-1
FAU 1-2
Army 0-3

Group E

Roll Tide. This group’s pivotal game was between Miami and Oklahoma State and the Cowboys scored late to win 27-23.

Results
Alabama 29, Miami 14
Oklahoma State 30, App State 23
Oklahoma State 27, Miami 23
Alabama 37, App State 13
Miami 24, Appalachian State 14
Alabama 33, Oklahoma State 23

Standings
Alabama 3-0
Oklahoma State 2-1
Miami 1-2
App State 0-3

Group F

The toughest group of the tournament ran all over Washington State. The Cougars lost by one to NC State and got plastered by both TCU and Georgia.

Results
Georgia 34, TCU 14
NC State 28, Washington State 27
TCU 20, NC State 17
Georgia 37, Washington State 13
TCU 31, Washington State 14
Georgia 35, NC State 7

Standings
Georgia 3-0
TCU 2-1
NC State 1-2
Washington State 0-3

Group G

Here’s the surprise of the tournament so far. This was the lowest-scoring group of the tournament and LSU’s inability to score more than 13 points in a game haunted them. Had Boise State beat Northwestern, this group would have been really interesting.

Results
Clemson 27, Boise State 14
Northwestern 13, LSU 10
Boise State 16, LSU 13
Northwestern 20, Clemson 10
Clemson 17, LSU 7
Northwestern 24, Boise State 20

Standings
Northwestern 3-0
Clemson 2-1
Boise State 1-2
LSU 0-3

Group H

Penn State got revenge on USC for the 2017 Rose Bowl and Virginia Tech was hopeless to beat either team and sneak into the round of 16.

Results
Penn State 27, USC 24
Virginia Tech 31, Troy 17
Penn State 38, Troy 13
USC 38, Virginia Tech 17
Penn State 31, Virginia Tech 27
USC 24, Troy 6

Standings
Penn State 3-0
USC 2-1
Virginia Tech 1-2
Troy 0-3

The Knockout Rounds

• Auburn vs. UCF
• Oklahoma vs. Mississippi State
• Ohio State vs. Washington
• Wisconsin vs. Toledo
• Alabama vs. TCU
• Georgia vs. Oklahoma State
• Northwestern vs. USC
• Penn State vs. Clemson

By conference:
AAC: UCF
ACC: Clemson
Big Ten: Ohio State, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Penn State
Big 12: Oklahoma, TCU, Oklahoma State
MAC: Toledo
Pac-12: Washington, USC
SEC: Auburn, Mississippi State, Alabama, Georgia

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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