The College Football Playoff is just a few days away and we have one of the most intriguing fields of the four team playoff era. The four teams that are still alive and competing for a national championship are #1 Michigan football, #2 Washington football, #3 Texas football and #4 Alabama football. However, we didn’t get here without a little bit of drama and controversy. For the first time in the four team playoff era, we saw an undefeated power five conference champion get left out of the playoff. Florida State finished 13-0 and won the ACC, but because of an injury to quarterback Jordan Travis, the Seminoles were left out, and one-loss conference champs Alabama and Texas got in instead. Michigan and Washington are also undefeated conference champions, and they were the two trams that were locks to make it heading into selection Sunday.
Michigan and Alabama will get the semifinals started as they will do battle in the Rose Bowl semifinal. That game will kickoff at 5:00 ET from Pasadena, California and the game will be airing on ESPN. It’s expected to be a close one as the Wolverines are currently favored by just 1.5 points. After that game, Washington football and Texas will square off in the Sugar Bowl semifinal. That game will kickoff at 8:45 ET from the Mercedes-Benz Super Dome in New Orleans, Louisiana. It will also be airing on ESPN. The Huskies are ranked higher than the Longhorns and they are undefeated, but Texas is the team that is favored as the spread currently favors them by 4.5 points.
The stage is set for the College Football Playoff, but who will end up hoisting the national title trophy on January 8th? According to the odds, it will be Michigan. The Wolverines have the best odds to come out on top and win the national title, which makes sense, they are the #1 team in the country and they are an undefeated power five conference champion. However, the other undefeated power five conference champion, Washington, has the worst odds to win the national title. Alabama isn’t too far behind the Wolverines as they have the second best odds, and Texas is behind them for the Huskies round out the group. It’s a bit surprising to see, but that’s how it is.
Washington might have the worst odds to win it all, but here’s why the Huskies can be the final team standing on January 8th. First off, everyone is doubting Washington and everyone has been doubting Washington all season long, and it honestly doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It was bizarre to see the Huskies as a 10-point underdog in the Pac-12 title game. Washington finished the regular season 12-0 and they were going up against Oregon, a team that they had already beaten earlier in the regular season. The Ducks looked like they had gotten better throughout the season and they were playing good football, but the disrespect to Washington was absurd. The Huskies saw that disrespect, and they responded with another victory over the Ducks to win the Pac-12.
