The 2021-2022 college football playoff is already historic, and it’s only going to get better

We have now entered December and this means one thing for college football; it’s playoff time. The bowl games are set and the college football playoff committee has announced the 4 teams that will be competing for a national championship. It’s the 1 seeded Alabama vs 4 seeded Cincinnati and 2 seed Michigan vs 3 seed Georgia. Let’s break down the matchups and predict what is going to happen in these final couple weeks of this wild college football season. 

We’ll start with what I view as almost a David vs Goliath matchup. It’s Cincy vs Bama. Cincinnati is the first team in CFP history to make the playoff as a nonpower 5 school. They went perfect in the regular season, and more than earned their spot in this game. They are well coached, banded together, and have shown they can beat elite competition such as No. 5 ranked Notre Dame and No. 21 ranked Houston. As well as other teams that usually do well for nonpower 5’s, such as UCF. But they haven’t quite faced a team like Alabama. As for Alabama, I mean, are we surprised? Yea sure they lost to 23rd ranked Texas A&M, and almost lost to unranked LSU and Auburn, but they negated all that when they beat then-number one Georgia last weekend in the SEC championship game. Led by Bryce Young at QB, this is yet another Nick Saban team that looks destined to play in the game that matters most, the national championship. I see Bama winning this matchup 34-17, showing that the nonpower 5’s still have a long way to go before they catch up to the Alabama’s of the world. 

Now for the more intriguing matchup. Georgia vs Michigan. We’ve heard about this Georgia team all season long. Some say they have the best defense in CFB history, some would even say they are one of if not the best CFB team of all time (they aren’t by the way, people on Twitter just have bad takes). We knew going into championship weekend they were a lock for the CFP, so the loss to Bama only dropped them to 3 instead of staying at 1. Their defense will be a key in beating a Michigan team that is red hot and continuing to prove doubters wrong. Michigan was unranked in the AP Preseason Poll. Yes, unranked. However, they’ve looked nothing like it the entire season. After years of suffering, they finally beat Ohio State in “The Game”, and come into the playoffs as the Big Ten Champion after destroying Iowa. This game will be a nail biter, and will probably sway back and forth. But I don’t think Michigan is ready just yet. Georgia wins 21-14. 

As for the National Championship prediction? Well, it’d be the 3rd time we see Georgia vs Alabama. They split decisive victories in the first two games, but you can never bet against Nick Saban. I have Alabama winning 38-35, and taking home yet another CFP trophy home. 

This college football season has been one we’ve all deserved after 2020, and it will all come to a crazy end very soon. The semi-finals will both be on New Year’s Eve, and the national championship will be on January 10th. And now we wait and see what this CFB season has for an encore.