We don't know what the seedings will be, but we know that the committee won't put Alabama and Georgia in the same semifinal. We know that Cincinnati did everything it was asked to do, finished perfect, and pulled away from Houston in the second half to win the Conference USA title, and that it is the first team from outside the Power 5 to make the four-teamCFP.
The Big Ten title was earned by Michigan by beating Iowa, just as it was by Ohio State last week. Louisiana and Notre Dame both have one loss. And so is UTSA. It seems unlikely that the committee will deviate from the team that was the top ranked team all year. The final four will be revealed on Sunday.
The most dominant team in the country is Georgia, so Michigan will get to face them all year. Alabama has a good chance of being the top spot, with their win over the Bulldogs giving them a good chance of facing Cincinnati. I think that means Alabama-Cincinnati in the Cotton Bowl and Michigan-Georgia in the Orange Bowl. The Peach Bowl is not for Alabama to claim an advantage if they are No. 1 or for Michigan to avoid playing Georgia in Atlanta.
I think that Cincinnati deserves the 3 spot over Georgia, but no one wants to watch a repeat of that performance against Alabama, because they were so bad. Kirby Smart is waiting for his day to come. I don't want to be this person, but if Cincinnati is perfect and we don't want to see a second game, the Irish are fired up and are a one-loss team that's been on their way up all November. Georgia fell apart today. I don't know about the 3 seed.
I don't think it will happen, I'm not opposed to Cincinnati being 3. If it does, it will probably be Alabama at 2 and Michigan at 1, and not much difference aside from who gets to pick a uniform color for the final. I need to ask if you hate being this person. I will bite. Georgia isn't one of the four best teams in the country. Could Notre Dame beat them? Yes. It is possible that they are a good team. Is they better? We watched Georgia dismantle teams all fall and the Irish did the same in November. Georgia lost to the No. 1 team. Notre Dame is to a team that is 3 or 4. Is there something going on when Notre Dame didn't play and Georgia was said to be worse?
Grace, that is a fair question, and to be fair, they did get let into the playoffs last year after a loss similar to Georgia's, and they suffer and benefit from the lack of the 13th data point. I think the Dawgs will get in, even though it is a toss up for the 4 spot. I would love to see the Irish with their new coach. I'm happy to see new faces in the running this year. It should make for an exciting New Year's Eve.
It will never stop being funny to me that only two conferences from the Power 5 will be in the playoffs. Notre Dame is an independent even if they beat Georgia for 4. The expansion of the playoffs has a lot of pitfalls, but it has always been crazy that at least one conference would be out of the game of musical chairs. We will get to have some fun with that, because they will all be repped in the FORTY-TWO bowl games over the next month.
Thanks for the poison!
It was hard to say which was more surprising, Alabama beating Georgia so soundly, or Nick Saban being as close to giddy as you will see, because for once he was able to go into a game with slights that were. In this era, nobody uses bulletin boards for things like that.
The committee might reshuffling last week's top four to form the playoff field, but Oklahoma State had so many bites at the cheese at the end of the Big 12 title game.
After getting to the Bears 10-yard line with 1:37 left, the Cowboys had a four-yard run, drew a defensive pass interference penalty to get first-and-goal at the 2, then ran four plays that gained a total of one yard. Mike Gundy had no choice but to accept the results because of the six snaps from 10 yards or less.
The Michigan play.
A flea flicker last week? The team is going into the playoffs with a lot of confidence.
