Michigan
players
celebrate
on the
field
after
the Big
Ten
championship
NCAA
college
football
game
against
Iowa,
Saturday,
Dec. 4,
2021, in
Indianapolis.
Michigan
won
42-3.
(AP
Photo/Darron
Cummings) |
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Georgia
quarterback
Stetson
Bennett
(13)
calls
audible
against
Alabama
during
the
first
half of
the
Southeastern
Conference
championship
NCAA
college
football
game,
Saturday,
Dec. 4,
2021, in
Atlanta.
(AP
Photo/John
Bazemore) |
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Historic
playoff:
Alabama-Cincinnati,
Michigan-Georgia
By RALPH
D. RUSSO
apnews,com
IRVING,
Texas -
As
college
football’s
postseason
evolved
from
disconnected
bowls to
the BCS
to the
current
four-team
playoff,
it never
truly
embraced
the
underdog
the way
the NCAA
basketball
tournament
does.
From
Tulane
to Utah,
Boise
State to
TCU and
then
UCF, the
upstarts
occasionally
got a
chance
to play
a blue
blood in
a big
bowl
game,
but they
never
entered
the
postseason
with a
legitimate
opportunity
to win a
national
championship.
College
football
finally
has its
first
Cinderella
team:
Cincinnati
has
broken
the
glass
ceiling.
The
Bearcats
will
play
Alabama
in the
Cotton
Bowl on
New
Year’s
Eve
after
being
selected
to the
College
Football
Playoff
on
Sunday.
Michigan
will
face
Georgia
in the
Orange
Bowl
semifinal
on Dec.
31 and
the
winners
will
play for
the
national
championship
on Jan.
10 in
Indianapolis.
Alabama
wide
receiver
Slade
Bolden
(18)
celebrates
during
the
second
half of
the
Southeastern
Conference
championship
NCAA
college
football
game
against
Georgia,
Saturday,
Dec. 4,
2021, in
Atlanta.
Alabama
won
41-24.
(AP
Photo/Brynn
Anderson)
Fourth-seeded
Cincinnati
is the
first
team to
reach
the CFP
from a
non-Power
Five
conference
in the
eight-year
history
of this
postseason
format.
The
Bearcats
(13-0)
won the
American
Athletic
Conference
and head
into the
postseason
as the
only
unbeaten
team in
the
country.
Cincinnati
fans and
players
celebrate
after
winning
the
American
Athletic
Conference
championship
NCAA
college
football
game
against
Houston
Saturday,
Dec. 4,
2021, in
Cincinnati.
(AP
Photo/Jeff
Dean)
“It’s an
historic
day. It
really
is. In
the
world of
sports,
this is
history,”
AAC
Commissioner
Mike
Aresco
said.
“This is
something
probably
many,
many
people
never
thought
they
would
see.”
Previously,
no team
from a
so-called
Group of
Five
conference
had ever
even
come
close to
making
the
playoff.
“We
don’t
want to
carry
the flag
for the
non-big
schools,
so to
speak.
We just
want to
be us,”
Cincinnati
coach
Luke
Fickell
said.
When the
Bowl
Championship
Series
started
in 1998,
Tulane
went
unbeaten
in
Conference
USA and
didn’t
even get
a spot
in one
of the
glitzy
bowl
games.
Former
Tulane
President
Scott
Cowen
was
among
the
first to
attack
the BCS
as an
exclusionary
cartel.
Under
then-coach
Urban
Meyer,
Utah
went
unbeaten
as a
member
of the
Mountain
West in
2004 and
reached
the
Fiesta
Bowl,
but only
got to
play a
so-so
Pittsburgh
team,
meaning
the Utes
had no
shot to
finish
No. 1.
Boise
State
created
a brand
out of
being a
potential
BCS
buster
during
its time
in the
Western
Athletic
Conference,
winning
a
remarkable
Fiesta
Bowl
against
Oklahoma
in 2007.
TCU was
in the
Mountain
West
when it
won a
Rose
Bowl
against
Wisconsin
in 2010.
Utah and
TCU
ended up
getting
scooped
up by
Power
Five
conferences.
If you
can’t
beat
them,
ask them
to join
you.
The
playoff
doubled
the
number
of teams
that had
a chance
to win
the
national
title
from two
to four
in 2014,
but it
didn’t
seem to
help the
little
guys.
UCF won
25
straight
games
over
2017 and
’18 and
never
did
better
than
eighth
in the
selection
committee’s
rankings.
The
Knights
went so
far as
to
declare
themselves
national
champions
after
they
were the
only
team in
major
college
football
to
finish
the 2017
season
unbeaten.
Cincinnati
set the
foundation
for this
year’s
run by
going
unbeaten
in the
regular
season
last
year
before
losing
to
Georgia
on a
late
field
goal in
the
Peach
Bowl.
Aresco
conceded
this run
has felt
bittersweet
at times
for him.
Cincinnati,
along
with UCF
and
Houston,
will be
leaving
the
American
for the
Big 12
soon.
The
Bearcats
made
history
with
little
debate.
Playoff
selection
committee
chairman
Gary
Barta
said
there
was
strong
consensus
for
Cincinnati
at No. 4
ahead of
No. 5
Notre
Dame,
which
had only
one loss
— at
home
against
the
Bearcats
in early
October.
Ohio
State
finished
sixth.
“This
will be
a real
challenge
for us
in every
way,
shape
and
form,”
Alabama
coach
Nick
Saban
said.
The
Bearcats
might
not have
been so
comfortably
in the
field
had
things
gone
differently
at the
Big 12
championship
game
Saturday.
Oklahoma
State,
which
was No.
5 in the
CFP
rankings
going
into the
game,
came up
inches
short of
scoring
a
go-ahead
touchdown
in the
final
minute
of its
loss to
Baylor.
Saban,
who
noted he
played
at Kent
State in
the
Mid-American
Conference,
said
Cincinnati’s
achievement
is a
positive
development
for the
sport.
“I
absolutely
think
that
everyone
who
participates
in
college
football
Division
I level
should
feel
like
they
have an
opportunity
to get
in the
playoff,”
Saban
said.
It is
the
third
time two
teams
from the
same
conference
are in
the CFP
and
second
time it
has
happened
with the
Southeastern
Conference.
For
years
ago,
Alabama
beat
Georgia
in
overtime
to win
the
national
title.
As
conference
leaders
consider
expanding
the
playoff
from
four to
12 teams
as soon
as 2024,
only two
Power
Five
leagues
will be
represented
this
season:
the SEC
and Big
Ten. The
Atlantic
Coast
Conference
missed
out for
the
first
time.
The Big
12 was
shut out
for the
second
straight
season
and the
Pac-12
for the
sixth
time
will not
have a
team in
the
playoff.
The
other
big bowl
games
were
also
set:
Michigan
State
(10-2)
vs. ACC
champion
Pitt
(11-2)
in the
Peach
Bowl on
Dec. 30.
Notre
Dame
(11-1)
vs.
Oklahoma
State
(11-2)
in the
Fiesta
Bowl on
Jan. 1.
Pac-12
champion
Utah
(10-3)
vs. Ohio
State
(10-2)
in the
Rose
Bowl on
Jan. 1.
Mississippi
(10-2)
vs.
Baylor
(11-2)
in the
Sugar
Bowl on
Jan. 1.
Cincinnati’s
reward
for
making
history
is a
matchup
with the
defending
national
champions
at the
home of
the
Dallas
Cowboys.
The
Crimson
Tide is
in the
playoff
for the
seventh
time
after
handing
Georgia
its
first
setback
of the
season
in the
SEC
title
game
Saturday.
Alabama
(12-1)
seemed
to be a
loss
away
from
being
eliminated
from
playoff
contention
heading
into its
game
with
Georgia.
Instead,
Bryce
Young
and the
Tide lit
up the
Bulldogs’
vaunted
defense
to earn
the top
seed.
Saban’s
Alabama
dynasty
has won
three
playoff
championships
to go
along
with
three
BCS
titles
since
2009.
Georgia
(12-1)
managed
to stay
in the
field as
the
third
seed,
becoming
the
second
team to
lose its
conference
title
game and
make the
playoff.
Notre
Dame did
the same
thing
last
season,
when it
lost a
rematch
with
Clemson
in its
lone
season
playing
in the
ACC, a
move
prompted
by
pandemic-altered
schedules.
The
Bulldogs
will be
making
their
second
CFP
appearance
when
they
meet
second-seeded
Michigan
(12-1)
in the
Orange
Bowl.
Coach
Jim
Harbaugh
and the
Wolverines
are in
the
playoff
for the
first
time
after
winning
the Big
Ten for
the
first
time
since
2004.
Michigan,
which
went 2-4
last
season,
is also
the
first
team to
make the
playoff
after
being
unranked
in the
preseason
AP Top
25.
___
Follow
Ralph D.
Russo at
https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP
and
listen
at
http://www.appodcasts.com
___
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college
football:
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and
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