Every year, there’s a final week to be one of the top four college football teams in order to make the College Football Playoff (CFP). This year that week was more intense than usual.
In the 2022-2023 season, Georgia, Michigan, Texas Christian University (TCU), and Ohio State made the playoffs. Georgia ended up beating TCU in the National Championship game with a 65-7 score blowout. This capped off a back-to-back championship run for them. This year, when they lost to Alabama in the Southeastern Conference championship, it was their first loss since the first championship run.
The four teams that ended up making it in the playoffs this year were Michigan, Washington, Texas, and Alabama in that order of seeding. This means that in the first round, Michigan will play Alabama at 5:00 PM EST on New Years’ Day and Washington will play Texas at 8:45 PM on the same day.
Florida State was left out of the top four, despite being an undefeated conference champion. This was the first time this has happened in the history of the CFP. They were left off due to their star quarterback, Jordan Travis, going down with a season ending leg injury on November 11. Alabama made it instead, capping off their regular season with a win against then No.1 Georgia.
Some argue that Florida State was more deserving, but others think Alabama should be in just because they’re the better team. Sophomore Evan Platt debates, “I think if any team that didn’t make it could [make it], it should’ve been Florida State because they did all they were supposed to, and won their game against Louisville fair and square.”
In the 2024-2025 season, this problem looks to be fixed. The CFP’s Board of Managers has decided to make it a 12-team playoffs, which means the top four teams would get a first round bye, and the other eight would play in the first round. Sophomore Holden Gessler states, “They should make it 14 teams, just like the NFL. They should make the change for revenue and it makes it more entertaining.”
Other than the playoffs, there are still bowl games during the postseason. Going on at the same time, Florida State plays No.6 Georgia on New Year’s Eve. Some other games that feature top-ranking teams are No.7 Ohio State vs. No.9 Missouri and No.10 Penn State vs. No.11 Ole Miss.
Any team can win the CFP. This has been evident over the years as multiple three or four seeds have won. Platt thinks Alabama will win, “After that win against Georgia, they won’t lose now.” Gessler also believes that Alabama will win because they have great wide receivers.
There was an intense struggle to make the CFP this year. Because of this, some great teams made it, and some were left out. This should make it interesting to watch as the four teams compete for a National Championship.
