They Got It Right

By: Mike Rifkin

On Sunday the NCAA announced the four teams competing in the College Football Playoff. The four teams will be Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, and Cincinnaitti. Those four teams will play each other on New Year’s Eve with the winners playing for the National Championship on January 10th. I usually give the committee a hard time and believe there needs to be expansion at some point, but this year they got the four teams correct. Now if you want to argue Michigan over Alabama for the number one seed we can have that conversation, but for now they got this right.

Let’s start with the defending National Champions the Alabama Crimson Tide. They went 12-1 7-1 in SEC play and beat then number one Georgia thoroughly 41-24. There were a lot of positives in this game including quarterback Bryce Young cementing himself as the winner of the Heisman Trophy throwing for 421 yards and three touchdowns. On the season Young had a 68.0 completion percentage 4,322 yards 43 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. Alabama’s defense had two interceptions on the day and with this win claimed a playoff spot .The defense led by Sophomore Will Anderson who led the country with 15.5 sacks was eight in the country in total defense. The major negative in the game was losing receiver John Metchie to a torn ACL. Metchie, a Junior, had 96 catches for 1,142 yards and 8 touchdowns. Even with Metchie down the Tide still have Jameson Williams who this season had 68 catches 1,145 yards and 15 touchdowns and Brian Robinson the running back 1,071 yards and 16 total touchdowns. Also they have this Nick Saban guy as their coach (he is pretty good.)

Now to Michigan who won the Big Ten Title after drubbing Iowa 42-3. Personally this stunned me because I had a feeling after finally defeating Ohio State Michigan was primed for a letdown, but they decimated the Hawkeyes the same way they beat the Buckeyes they ran the football for 211 yards and scored four touchdowns on the ground. The Running game is led by Hassan Haskins who had 1,288 yards and 20 touchdowns.  Michigan comes into the playoffs as the lowest scoring offense of the four teams averaging 37.7 points per game. They are tied for fourth scoring defense allowing 16.08 points per game. Defense is led by edge rushers Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo who had 14 and 11 sacks respectively putting them both in the top 10 in the country. Yes Jim Harbaugh got the monkey off his back by finally beating the Buckeyes, but this is what Michigan fans have anticipated since he took over. 

Then there is Georgia who was the number one team in the country until they played Alabama, that loss makes Kirby Smart 0-4 vs his former boss. Georgia’s defense was first in a lot of categories, but one category they were not first in was third down defense and Alabama took advantage of that by going 7- 14 on third downs. Georgia averaged 195 yards per game rushing in this game they were held to 109, which meant quarterback Stetson Bennett had to beat Alabama and he had two interceptions that really cost Georgia.  The Michigan Georgia game should be a dandy because it will be all about who is the more physical team.

Last but not least Cinderella crashes the party. The Cincinnati Bearcats defeated the Houston Cougars in the AAC title game 35-20 giving the Bearcats a perfect 13-0 record. Finally a non power 5 school breaks into the playoffs. Coach Luke Fickell who should be the national coach of the year brought his team in with a chip on their shoulder. In 2020 the Bearcats went undefeated and weren’t invited to the playoffs and lost to Georgia 24-21 in the Peach Bowl but they showed they can play with the big boys. This year they didn’t leave things to chance and scheduled two difficult road games at Indiana and at Notre Dame and with those signature wins the Bearcats are now heading to the playoffs. The Bearcats averaged 38.8 points per game which is ninth in the country led by quarterback Desmond Ridder who had a 65.9 completion percentage with 30 touchdowns and 8 interceptions, he also had 6 rushing touchdowns. They are fourth in scoring defense and seventh in total defense. The defense is tied for seventh in turnover margin which is the highest of the playoff teams.  

Here is my question to you: had Houston won the game, if Oklahoma State still lost, who is the fourth team? Is it Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Baylor,etc… We can give the committee grief another day and talk about playoff expansion then because for 2021 they got all four teams in the playoffs right. Until then we wait until New Year’s Eve to watch the four best teams in College Football play.