Jake McGuire ’27
Staff Writer
Going into the last weekend of the season, there were 8 teams vying for 4 spots in the College Football Playoff. In order of their rankings, it went: Georgia, Michigan, Washington, Florida State, Oregon, Ohio State, Texas, Alabama. Of these four teams, the first four were undefeated. All of these teams had impressive resumes, having dominated their league competition with a case to be put into the college football playoff.
The first championship was played on Friday: the PAC-12 championship, with undefeated #3 Washington versus 1-loss #5 Oregon, whose only loss of the season had come to Washington. The Huskies were up 10-0 at the end of the first quarter and 20-10 at the end of the first half. Oregon played a much better second half, even having a 24-20 lead at the end of the third quarter, but in the end, Washington held onto a 34-31 victory to guarantee them a spot in the CFP.
The other four league championship games were on Saturday. In the Big 12 title game, #7 Texas took on 1#8 Oklahoma State in what will be Texas’s last season in the Big 12, as they are leaving to go to the SEC next year. Texas played their last game in the Big 12 with a fantastic showing, cruising to a 49-21 victory.
The SEC championship took place next, featuring #1 Georgia, the back-to-back National Champions who entered the game on a 29-game winning streak, the longest active streak in college football. They played #8 Alabama, who had barely escaped with a win against a 6-5 Auburn team thanks to a miraculous touchdown on 4th and 31 with little time left in the game. Alabama won, playing their best all around game of the season. They took a 10-7 lead at the end of the first quarter and never gave it back. While Georgia kept the game close, Alabama managed to pull out a 27-24 victory.
The Big Ten championship took place between #2 Michigan and #16 Iowa. Last week, Michigan had already beaten Ohio State 30-24 in “The Game,” the biggest rivalry game in college football. That victory knocked out Ohio State from any realistic chance of making it into the top 4. Iowa, despite winning the much inferior Big Ten West, held virtually no chance of winning against Michigan. Michigan shutout Iowa 26-0 en route to a bid for the College Football Playoff.
Lastly, the ACC championship took place last Saturday night in North Carolina between #4 Florida State and# 14 Louisville. Florida State came in with a number of key injuries, including star quarterback Jordan Travis as well as backup quarterback Tate Rodemaker. The ACC championship was a defensive battle, with only one touchdown being scored. The final score was Florida State 16, Louisville 6.
This made things difficult for the CFP selection committee. Winning your league championship is an important factor, as well as your strength of schedule. The first two seeds were with little debate. Undefeated Michigan was the 1 seed and undefeated Washington was the 2 seed.
The three teams competing for the last two spots were Texas, Alabama, and Florida State. In early September, Texas had a convincing win over Alabama, 34-24. Therefore, Texas was put in as the 3 seed.
The controversy lied in the decision to put Alabama as the 4 seed over undefeated Florida State. Alabama has a reputation for getting preferential treatment by the committee – they are always ranked relatively high no matter their record, no matter the season. Alabama has had a rocky season, with at one point having three different quarterbacks play in two weeks. They only scored 17 points against South Florida, who is not even in a power 5 conference; they had an abysmal loss to Texas, they narrowly pulled out a 24-21 victory against a 2-5 Arkansas team at the bottom of the SEC, and would have lost the Iron Bowl to Auburn if it was not for the miraculous pass at the end of the game. Meanwhile, Florida State was undefeated the entire season. Except for the intense 31-29 contest against Boston College, they had won every game this season by more than eight points, including the ACC title game against Louisville.
The night of January 1st is the start of the college football playoffs. #1 Michigan plays #4 Alabama in the Prudential Rose Bowl, and #2 Washington plays #3 Texas in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
The winners of these two games travel to Houston, Texas to play in the National Championship on Monday, January 8th.
Featured Image Courtesy of ESPN
Leave a Reply