As we come to the end of 2017, we get closer and closer to the start of the College Football Playoff. This is the NCAAF version of the Final Four.
The lucky four teams are Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, and Oklahoma. Most people would argue that the committee got it right and these are the four best teams in college football this year. Let's take a look at how they got here.
Starting with the Georgia Bulldogs... Georgia rolled through their SEC schedule, beating everyone in their way except for a November 11th matchup against the Auburn Tigers. Auburn rolled the Bulldogs 40-17, vaulting the Tigers into the committee's top 4 and putting Georgia's chances at the playoffs in jeopardy. Georgia rebounded the next two weeks, winning both games by a combined score of 80-20, setting up a rematch against Auburn in the SEC Championship game. Georgia got their revenge by knocking out Auburn 28-7 and securing one of the top 4 spots in the playoff.
The Oklahoma Sooners, led by Heisman Trophy winner, Baker Mayfield, used a week two win on the road against the Ohio State Buckeyes to catapult them into the playoff conversation. The Sooners only had one hiccup on the way to winning the Big 12 Championship and that was on October 7 against Iowa State. The Sooners may have been looking ahead to the Red River Rivalry the following weekend against the Texas Longhorns, and didn't give Iowa State the attention they deserved. They rebounded to win the matchup against the Longhorns and didn't have a problem with anyone on the rest of their schedule, including cruising to an easy victory against TCU in the Big 12 Championship game.
The Clemson Tigers enter the playoffs as the defending champions. The Tigers, just like the previous two teams, had just one blemish on their schedule. They lost a Friday the 13th game in October against Syracuse. They were really only tested one more time in a game in which they won 38-31 against NC State. They carried this momentum into the highly anticipated game in the ACC Championship against the Miami Hurricanes and their turnover chain. The Hurricanes proved to be no match against Clemson as they dominated the U 38-3 and secured a return trip to the playoffs.
The last team in the playoffs is no stranger to the final four. We have the Alabama Crimson Tide coming in as the committee's fourth ranked team. They enter the playoffs amid some controversy as to whether they deserve to be one of the four. They are the only team in this years playoffs that did not win their conference championship. In fact, they didn't even play in the SEC championship game. They did finish the season with only one loss, which came against a red hot Auburn team on November 25th. That loss dropped them to number 5 in the committee's rankings, but after Georgia defeated Auburn in the SEC Championship game, Auburn fell out of the top 4, and Bama was back in again.
The playoffs begin on Monday, January 1 at 5:00 PM EST, with Georgia playing Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl. The second game, the Sugar Bowl, will be at 8:45 PM EST, with Alabama against Clemson in a rematch of last years National Championship Game. The winners of these two games will meet on January 8 to decide this season's National Champion.
Did the committee get it right? Are these the four best teams in the country? Does Alabama deserve to be in the final four without being a conference champion? Is it time for the playoffs to expand to 8 teams? These are some of the most common questions surrounding this year's College Football Playoffs.
Whatever the answers to those questions are, I'm just hoping for three very competitive games.