The College Football Playoff is Set with Georgia, Michigan TCU, and Ohio State
The 2022 college regular season has finally come to a close and it has been a wild and crazy ride. Over the last couple of weeks, the selection committee seemed to have a real problem on their hands with multiple teams making a strong case for the playoff. That problem seemed to be resolved after multiple teams went down in the final two weeks of the season Tennessee and Clemson saw their playoff dreams come to an end with a loss to South Carolina. LSU blew their shot with an ugly loss to Texas A&M and a beat down by Georgia in the SEC Championship.
The congested playoff race seemed to clear up and it looked like the top four spots were cemented until Championship Saturday took place. The number-one ranked Georgia Bulldogs and the number-two ranked Michigan Wolverines took of care business yesterday and locked up their spot in the playoff, but the three and four spots are a complete toss-up. USC was the four seed before getting beaten handily by Utah in the PAC-12 Championship game. TCU was the undefeated three-seed going into the day but lost in overtime to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship game. This caused a ton of confusion and uncertainty as to who will come in as the three and four seed.
As it stood coming into Sunday morning, Ohio State sat right on the edge of the playoff as the five seed and Alabama as the six seed. With both TCU and USC losing in the championship game, many are wondering if that is enough to get a two-loss Alabama team into the playoffs.
There was almost no doubt that Ohio State was going to have a spot but the question remained as to which seed. Would TCU remain at three since they have the same record as Ohio State or would the Buckeyes surpass them and take the three seed? Would TCU's loss be enough for the committee to take them out of the top four completely and put Alabama in as the four seed making them the first two-lost team in CFP history? The committee answered all those questions as they released their final four teams for the College Football Playoff.
It's no surprise that Georgia and Michigan came in at one and two with the way they took care of business on Saturday. The biggest question today was whether TCU would be penalized for losing to a top-ten team in the Big 12 championship game. That question was answered as the committee kept TCU as the three seed. This means that Michigan will take on the Horned Frogs of TCU in the Fiesta Bowl. The Frogs make their first-ever appearance in the College Football Playoff and they do with a first-year head coach in Sonny Dikes. Coming in as the four seed was Ohio State. The Buckeyes thought their dreams were dead after a bad loss to Michigan last week, but Ohio State found a way in anyway. This means the Bulldogs of Georgia will take on the Buckeyes in the Peach Bowl. Alabama and Tennessee rounded out the top six. The playoff is officially set and here is what fans have to say about it.
These mashups are the most intriguing slate of games I have seen in quite some time. The semifinal games are set to take place on New Year's Eve.