Written by Tyler Pastorious
After a weekend of Championship games, the College Football Playoff are finally set. Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, and Oklahoma made the cut.
- Alabama (13-0) –
2. Clemson (13-0) –
3. Notre Dame (12-0) –
4. Oklahoma (12-1) +1
5. Georgia (11-2) -1
6. Ohio State (12-1) –
7. Michigan (10-2) –
8. UCF (12-0) –
9. Washington (10-3) +2
10. Florida (9-3) -1 - LSU (9-3) -1
12. Penn State (9-3) –
13. Washington State (10-2) -5
14. Kentucky (9-3) +1
15. Texas (9-4) -1
16. West Virginia (8-3) –
17. Utah (9-3) –
18. Mississippi State (8-4) –
19. Texas A&M (8-4) –
20. Syracuse (9-3) –
21. Fresno State (11-2) +4
22. Northwestern (8-5) -1
23. Missouri (8-4) +1
24. Iowa State (8-4) -1
25. Boise State (10-3) -3
Alabama remains the kings of College Football with a close game against Georgia. Georgia looked like they were going to dethrone Bama but the Roll Tide kept rolling forward and former starter Jalen Hurts took over at QB as Tua Tagovailoa got hurt with an injury during the 4th quarter. Even if Alabama lost to Georgia there was many talks and speculations that they would have still remained in the playoff contention but with the win, they are locked in as one of the final four teams.
Clemson faced Pitt in the ACC Championship game and by no surprise, the Tigers came in and beat the Panthers. They routed Pitt in a 42-10 victory. This was one of those games where no one was surprised if Clemson won but if they lost it would have shaken the playoffs up a good amount especially with the performance that Georgia had against Alabama and even the win Ohio State had against Northwestern in the Big 10 Championship. With the win, Clemson was able to maintain the No. 2 spot in the playoffs.
Notre Dame remains in the No. 3 spot after a week with no game.
The big “controversial” spot that seems to be a yearly thing with the College Football playoff format is the No. 4 spot which was claimed by Oklahoma. After the dust settled I don’t think there is much of an argument for Oklahoma taking the spot except for maybe Georgia. Oklahoma beat Texas in the Big 12 Championship with a 39-27 victory. With that win, the only loss they had throughout the year was earlier in the year when the played Texas. Some may say that the strength of schedule Oklahoma had was a bit of a weeker scheduled compared to other teams since when you look at the final standings the only teams that were ranked that they played were Texas and WVU. At the end of the day, the committee decided to go with them over Georgia and Ohio State. Personally, I would have taken Georgia over Oklahoma. If you look at the performance Georgia has had all year and the performance they had on Saturday night, I think they were more than deserving of the fourth spot even though they hold a record of 11-2.
Ohio State stayed in the No. 6 spot even after beating Northwestern but, I don’t think it was a surprise. The game was going back and forth and playing against Northwestern is a different type of statement rather than playing against the likes of Alabama or Georgia. So having some little struggle early on against Northwestern definitely left a sour taste in the mouth of not only the committee but even some fans of the Buckeyes. On the positive, they will play in the Rose Bowl against the Washington Huskies.
With the playoffs set the matchups will be Alabama/Oklahoma and Clemson/Notre Dame. One thing to note is with over the past couple of years many college football fans have scrutinized the committees’ selections and this year there is still some talk about it but, the big picture that fans want the committee to see is that they would like the playoff picture expanded. Personally, I think it is a great idea to expand the playoffs to either six or eight teams. It might make things a little more difficult schedule-wise but there won’t be any confusion or question as to why certain teams made it over others. That would leave the game to be about football and being settled on the field with the best possible team winning.
Now that the playoff picture is set, who do you have winning the National Championship?
