Expanded CFP Looking Back - 2018

Just doing this for shits and giggles. Don't @ me.

I've included the team's final college football playoff ranking in parenthesis if it differed from the seeding shown here.

*denotes team is an automatic conference champion qualifier.



Of Note: ND goes from in the final 4 to having to play round 1. tOSU, who didn't make the 4 team payoff, would have a first round bye in the proposed 12 team format.

Round 1
Washington vs. UCF
Washington finished 10-4 overall this year. Loses to (9) Auburn in the opener, (17) Oregon, Cal, and a 28-3 loss to tOSU in the Rose Bowl. Their best win came by the score of 28-15 over Washington State. UCF played two ranked teams. They beat fellow Group of 5 playoff team, Cincinnati 38-13 and lost to LSU 40-32 after awakening Joe Burrow’s inner beast just before halftime. IDK man… Give me Washington.

Notre Dame vs. Penn State
Notre Dame went undefeated until meeting No 2 in the Cotton Bowl semifinal. They lost that one 30-3. James Franklin consistently has Penn State finishing in the top 10 in his 5th season as head coach. They just can’t seem to break through a tough (self-proclaimed) Big 10 Conference. I’ll go with seeding and say ND wins this one.

LSU vs. UGA
It was fun watching LSU stomp No. 2 UGA in tiger stadium earlier that year, and while I think LSU wasn’t far off this year. I don’t think they are there yet. UGA takes the rematch.

Michigan vs. Florida
This one actually happened. Florida beat UM 41-15 in the Peach Bowl that year.

Quarters
Alabama vs. Washington
Wouldn’t be close. Bama all the way. Save me the write up for this one.

ND vs Ohio State
ND came in at 12-1 overall. tOSU at 13-1. Despite a bad regular season loss to Purdue 49-20 I still think Ohio State is the better team. ND shite the bed against Clemson in the semis that year 30-3. Give me the Buckeyes here.

Oklahoma vs. Georgia
Both lost to Texas. Both lost to Bama. I think Kyler Murray overwhelms UGA, but they settle down and SEC athleticism prevails. Dawgs win. Freshman QB Justin Fields likes what he sees and decides he wants to continue his career at UGA in the hopes of winning a national championship one day.

Florida vs Clemson
No one was stopping Clemson this year…

Semifinals
Alabama vs. Ohio State
No was stopping Alabama this year… except Clemson.

Georgia vs. Clemson
Between Kirby Smart and Jake Fromm… one of them chokes away a halftime lead and Clemson cruises to a 3 TD victory.

Final
Alabama vs. Clemson
Clemson won this 44-16. And it’s hard to justify a different outcome no matter what playoff structure you use… but here, everything is made up and the points don’t matter…So here we go… beating 3 top 10 SEC teams in a row is tough call for anyone. Dabo having to actually fight out the first two playoff wins against teams that Nick Saban is familiar with will give Nick too much valuable game footage. Alabama wins this one, and I’ll chalk it up to them having the easier road to the final and Clemson actually having to play decent competition.