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Who finished in the top four?
Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, and Cincinnati are the top four teams in the final College Football Playoff rankings. The song is called "2:49."
12:57 PM
The College Football Playoff has not changed much.
There was a chance that we would have four not-so-familiar participants in this season's playoff because of the fact that Ohio State, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State did not make the conference championship games.
Georgia, Michigan, and Cincinnati were the only teams from the same conference to play in the playoffs.
The chance of the playoffs' usual suspects not being around this year was lessened by the fact that the SEC championship game was won by the Georgia.
Yeah, right.
College football isn't about to crown a national champion without the Tide in the mix, and they'll be back in the playoff for the seventh time in eight years after a stunning 41-24 victory over the Bulldogs on Saturday night. Alabama is the favorite to win it again after being an underdog for the first time in 93 games.
"I think what these guys really wanted to gain was more respect," he said. I think we had a lot of respect for Georgia, their team, and what they accomplished, not just the fact that they were under the radar. You guys gave us a lot of positive rat poison. The rat poison that you usually give us is usually fatal, but this week it was delicious.
The semifinals of the CFP will be on New Year's Eve.
Alabama and Cincinnati are ranked 4 and 1 respectively.
College Football Playoff Semifinal at Cotton Bowl Classic.
On Friday, December 31st.
AT&T Stadium is in Arlington, Texas.
You can watch on the app.
The Alabama team looked ordinary in close victories over LSU, Arkansas and Auburn at the end of the season, but they dominated Georgia in Atlanta. The Tide will head into the playoffs as the favorite to win their seventh national championship under coach Nick Saban, which would break his tie with legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant for most titles won at Alabama.
The only other team in the country to finish the season without a loss was the Bearcats, who beat Houston 35-20 in the American Athletic Conference championship game. They will be the first team from a Group of 5 conference to make the playoffs and will face a monumental task trying to beat the Tide.
Young scored four times against Georgia in the SEC championship.
The key player for Alabama is the quarterback. If Young wasn't at the top of the list of candidates for the award before the SEC championship game, he probably is now. Young ran for 40 yards with one of his three touchdown runs and completed 26 of 44 passes for 421 yards with three touchdown passes. His passing total was the fourth highest in the past 15 seasons. His 609 yards of total offense was the most by any player in the game. Young is very calm and never makes a mistake.
Ridder is the key player for Cincinnati. He was named the American Athletic's Offensive Player of the Year in each of the last two seasons, and he is the all-time leader in passing touchdown and total yards. He threw for 190 yards and three touchdown against Houston. He had six such games in his first three seasons at Cincinnati, but this was his fifth game this season with at least three passing touchdown. In 13 games this year, Ridder has completed 65.9% of his passes for 3,190 yards with 30 touchdown and eight picks. He was perfect at home at Cincinnati, going 26-0. He is the fourth-best quarterback available for the NFL draft in 2022, according to Todd McShay.
The Alabama receiver vs the Cincinnati secondary will be watched. The task of trying to contain Alabama receiver Jameson Williams is going to be difficult, as he is one of the best cover corners in the country. Williams had seven catches for 184 yards with two scores. Going into the title game, he had allowed just 14 catches on 32 targets in 12 games and had never allowed a touchdown in his career. Coby Bryant was one of three candidates for the Thorpe Award, which is given to the best defensive back in the FBS.
Alabama's experience in theCFP is an X factor. Cincinnati is making its first appearance in the CFP, while the Tide have appeared in all but one in the last eight years. Will the stage be large enough for the Bearcats?
Georgia defeated Cincinnati 24-21 in the 2020 Peach Bowl on Jack Podlesny's 53-yard field goal with three seconds to go. opt-outs and injuries were the reason for the missing starters. Ridder played well, throwing for 206 yards and two touchdown, and tailback Jerome Ford nearly had 100 yards rushing.
The Michigan and Georgia teams are ranked 3 and 2.
The Capital One Orange Bowl has a College Football Playoff Semifinal.
On Friday, December 31st.
Hard Rock Stadium is in Miami Gardens, Florida.
You can watch on the app.
Georgia was the most dominant team of the season until it was defeated by Alabama. Is the best team in the country the one that didn't have a lot of meat on their schedule? Was the SEC championship game a bad night for the team, or was it really a bad night for them?
We will have to wait three more weeks to find out, when the two teams play again. Jim Harbaugh's reputation as one of the better coaches in the country has been restored by Michigan's effort, which has been one of the biggest surprises of the season. After blowing up his staff and taking a pay cut, Harbaugh led the Michigan to a Big Ten championship and their first victory over Ohio State in a decade. It is Michigan's first conference title since 2004.
The style of the two teams is very similar, although Georgia takes more downfield shots. Both teams rely on the running game to control the clock. Georgia and Michigan started playing football 13 years apart, but they've only met once on the field. The Big House was the site of a 15-7 win by the Bulldogs in 1965, Vince Dooley's second season.
The Michigan running back set a record with 20 rushing touchdown.
The key player for Michigan is the running back. The Big Ten's leading rushing team is the Michigan, and senior running back Don Haskins is a big reason why. He had over 100 yards in six of his team's first 12 games, including 169 against Ohio State, 156 against Penn State and 168 against Indiana. The run defense was ranked third in the country by allowing 78.9 yards per game. They gave up 115 to the Tide, but only 4.2 yards per carry. The Michigan doesn't ask McNamara to do much in the passing game, so he's going to have to keep the chains moving. In the Big Ten title game, he broke the single-season record for rushing touchdown with 20.
Brock Bowers is a key player for Georgia. With star George Pickens going down in the spring with a tornACL, and other wideouts battling injuries throughout the regular season, the one constant in the passing game was Bowers. The freshman from California set a UGA single-season record for tight ends with 11 touchdown catches. The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Bowers is a nightmare for opposing defenses because of his speed and route running. He set a record for catches by a tight end in an SEC championship game, with 10 against Alabama.
The Georgia offensive line will face the Michigan defensive line. In the first 12 games, the Georgia defense allowed only eight sacks, ranking them among the country's best. The running game for Georgia averaged just 3.6 yards per carry, and the defense gave up three to the Tide. The Michigan end set a single-season record with 14 sacks in the season of 2021. Heading into the Big Ten championship game against Iowa, the Michigan had 33 sacks and 66 tackles for loss. McShay rates Hutchinson as a top-5 prospect and the second defensive end in the draft.
You can win up to $1 million with your bowl picks. Pick your favorites.
Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett is an X factor. Bennett, a former walk-on, had been good for most of the regular season, avoiding mistakes and taking care of the football. Jordan Battle's pick-six gave the Tide a three-touchdown lead early in the fourth quarter. It was too late for the Dogs to take advantage of red zone chances.
Bennett had a good time. He completed 29 of 48 passes for 340 yards with three scores. Don't expect Smart and his staff to go back to Daniels. Since his last start, the onetime USC transfer has attempted only 33 passes. With so much at stake, they're more than likely going to keep their wagon hitched to Bennett.
"We have a decision to make every week at every position, but I have the utmost confidence in Stetson Bennett," Smart said. I think he did some nice things. He played well, but we go and reexamine everything. We have to be able to run the ball and have balance in the environment we put him in. I felt like we were getting into a scoring contest because our defense didn't get stops, and you don't want to have to do that.
