Meet the new boss, same as the … ah, the heck with it. Alabama is No. 1 in the College Football Playoff for the fifth time while appearing in the field for the seventh time in its eight-year existence. Look and sound familiar? It should.
The Crimson Tide, on Saturday in the 2021 SEC Championship Game, vanquished the one, true team that had separated itself from the rest of the country. Remember previously No. 1 Georgia? Try harder. Those Bulldogs seem so long ago. The team that led the country in point differential, the team with the best defense, the team that was going to allow Kirby Smart to finally break through against Nick Saban was dismantled.
Oh, there could be another rematch in the national championship game, if the favorites win. That raises another question: Should Alabama have to beat Georgia twice to get its seventh national title under Saban?
Before you answer, consider a rematch is glimpse of the future in an expanded playoff. Simple math tells you: more teams, more chances of rematches.
For now, it’s time to celebrate Year 8 of the CFP. The overwrought machinations of its selection committee got the field right. This playoff welcomes in the first Group of Five team (Cincinnati) to play for an FBS national title. Michigan and its record 976 wins is also a “newbie”, if you want to call it that. Coach Jim Harbaugh finally climbed the mountain in the flatlands of central Indiana, winning the Big Ten on Saturday. For the first time since Year 2 of the CFP in 2015, two new teams are in the bracket.
Now the question: Will Harbaugh and Wolverines get back to Lucas Oil Stadium in 36 days for the CFP National Championship? Will Cincinnati wreck the bracket and change minds in the same season it announced a change of…
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