Now that college football has a bracket -- albeit a very small one for a four-team playoff -- the mantra of the NCAA basketball tournament is seeping its way into fall Saturdays: Survive and advance.
It's not quite that simple, but it was certainly an appropriate way to look at what No. 1 Florida State and No. 2 Oregon did Saturday night.
The top seven teams in the latest Associated Press college football rankings on Sunday held their spots from last week. Florida State has 33 first-place votes. Oregon received 12. No. 3 Alabama got 7 after being both dominant and sloppy in a 42-21 victory against Florida. Oklahoma has 4 first-place votes. Auburn is No. 5, Texas A&M is sixth with four first-place votes and Baylor is seventh.
The top-ranked Seminoles somehow escaped defeat, winning with their Heisman Trophy-winner quarterback Jameis Winston leading cheers on the sidelines and after getting pushed around most of the night by Clemson.
But the Tigers never could knock out the defending champs. Missed short field goals, bad snaps, fumbles and at least one officials' call that could have gone Clemson's way but did not, let Florida State slip away with a 23-17 overtime victory.
Florida State Coach Jimbo Fisher announced Winston was once again the starter shortly after the top-ranked Seminoles survived their most significant regular-season scare since Winston earned the job at the start of 2013.
Winston sat out for making "offensive and vulgar" comments about female anatomy on campus Tuesday.
The schedule now favors the Seminoles (3-0, 1-0) with Winston back under center and no ranked opponents for the next 26 days.
Backup quarterback Sean Maguire was pressed into action and threw for more than 300 yards. But he threw two interceptions, and the rest of the team didn't play much better as the offensive line struggled, the run game was nonexistent and the defense missed tackles regularly. Florida State hadn't played an overtime game since a triple overtime loss to Penn State in the 2006 Orange Bowl.
"I think distractions were part of it," Fisher said. "Yeah, I definitely do. I thought the last 48 hours ... we resolved and came back.
"The mental resolve of this football team, that's why I love them. They understand how to rally together, they understand how to pull together, and they understand how much they care for each other. I think they mentally got themselves back together."
Questions swirled about whether the Seminoles deserve to retain their No. 1 ranking. The team was held to 13 rushing yards on 27 attempts with Maguire was sacked five times.
Winston likely would have avoided some of those sacks with his mobility and quick decision-making. But the FSU defense gave up 400 yards -- something that didn't happen at all during the 2013 regular season. Clemson's 306 passing yards were the most the Seminoles have allowed since 2011 -- a span of 39 games.
"They had a lot of adversity, but they hung in there and they fought," Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney said. "Great teams find a way to win and they have won 19 in a row for a reason."
Oregon was fortunate enough to have their star quarterback available at Washington State because outside of Marcus Mariota much went wrong for Oregon in a 38-31 victory in Pullman, Washington.
Mariota passed for 329 yards, 5 touchdowns and a few magic tricks playing behind a banged-up offensive line that got him bounced around. The Ducks also were on the right side of an uncalled pass interference penalty on Washington State's last drive.
Not Oregon's best day, but the record is unblemished and that's all that matters.
It's unlikely more than a team or two from the Big Five conferences will be unbeaten come selection Sunday -- yes, college football has one of those, too, now.
Only once in the 16-year run of BCS did more than two teams from the power conferences finish the regular season perfect. Auburn was the third wheel in 2004 when Southern California and Oklahoma played for the national title.
Now, an unbeaten record should lock up a spot in the four-team playoff, barring an unprecedented set of circumstances -- at least for the teams playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC.
Sports on 09/22/2014