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The 9th year of the College Football Playoff has a 50% chance of producing a first-time champion in the playoff era. Georgia is the No. 1 seed this year with Michigan No. 2, TCU No. 3 and Ohio State No. 4. Neither Michigan or TCU has ever won the title game since the playoff system began in 2014.
Michigan is back for a second straight year while TCU is making its first appearance.
Defending champion Georgia is back for the third time - all since 2017 when the Bulldogs lost in the national championship game to Alabama in overtime. Ohio State is making its 5th appearance after missing out last year.
Alabama is not part of the Final Four for only the second time since the playoff format began in 2014. The last time that happened was 2019 when LSU was the only SEC participant and won the title.
Last year's top 4 seeds were Alabama, Michigan, Georgia and Cincinnati.
The semifinals take place on New Year's Eve with TCU and Michigan squaring off in the Fiesta Bowl, followed Georgia battling Ohio State in the Peach Bowl. The winners will meet at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on January 9.
SEC teams have taken 5 of the last 9 national championships, and 12 of the last 16. Alabama has won 6 titles since 2009. ACC schools have taken 3 titles since 2013. Ohio State is the only school outside the SEC or ACC to win a national championship since Texas won in 2005.
| College Football Playoff Title Game Results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Won | Pts. | Lost | Pts. |
| 2014 | Ohio State | 42 | Oregon | 20 |
| 2015 | Alabama | 45 | Clemson | 40 |
| 2016 | Clemson | 35 | Alabama | 31 |
| 2017 | Alabama (OT) | 26 | Georgia | 23 |
| 2018 | Clemson | 44 | Alabama | 16 |
| 2019 | LSU | 42 | Clemson | 25 |
| 2020 | Alabama | 52 | Ohio State | 24 |
| 2021 | Georgia | 33 | Alabama | 18 |
Alabama is 9-4 in playoff games, including a 3-3 mark in the championship.
Of this year's participants:
Georgia is 3-1 in playoff games, including 1-1 in the championship.
Michigan is 0-1.
TCU is 0-0.
Ohio State is 3-3 in playoff games, including 1-1 in the championship.
TCU has 3 national championships awarded by NCAA Recognized selectors, including the Congrove Computer Rankings which awarded the title to TCU in 2010. Georgia has 7, Michigan has 16 and Ohio State has 17.
Since 1993, the Congrove Computer Rankings (CCR) has awarded 1 title to TCU, 1 to Georgia, 2 to Ohio State and 0 to Michigan. The Wolverines were voted No. 1 by the AP, but Nebraska got the nod by the Coaches' Poll, the FWAA Poll and the CCR.
In all, 41 bowl games will now take place in the postseason. The national championship clash gives us a 42nd game to watch, but is not a bowl game.
The computer expects just 6 of the bowl games to be decided by double-digit points, while it has 14 games with margins of 2.99 or less, and 6 under a single point.
Predicted margins range from 12.95 for Baylor over Air Force to 0.16 for Bowling Green over New Mexico State.
There are zero rematches of games from the 2022 regular season, 14 pairings of team that have never played each other, and 10 matchups of teams that haven't met in the last 25 years or longer.
| Conference | W-L | Games | Pct. |
|---|---|---|---|
| MWC | 5-1 | 6 | .833 |
| American |
3-1 | 4 | .750 |
| Sun Belt |
3-1 | 4 | .750 |
| Big 12 |
5-2 | 7 | .714 |
| Big 10 |
6-4 | 10 | .600 |
| Independents | 2-2 | 4 | .500 |
| SEC | 5-7 | 12 | .417 |
| CUSA | 3-5 | 8 | .375 |
| MAC | 3-5 | 8 | .375 |
| ACC | 2-4 | 6 | .333 |
| PAC-12 | 0-5 | 5 | .000 |
| NOTE: CFP Championship game does not count in bowl standings | |||
Abandoning your team for a bowl game was once unthinkable. Now, it has become commonplace among athletes who hope to draw a big pay day in the NFL. There's also the transfer portal which has over 900 athletes waiting for a new place to go. We found a website that is doing an excellent job of keeping up with all the hold-outs and transfers.
SEE: Bowl Opt-outs and Transfer Portal
We are not sure if there is any relevancy to this information as, like a lot of things in sports betting, it's impossible to find a system or theory that guarantees to make you a winner.
However, we found it remarkable that there are 15 bowl games in which the current computer projection gets flipped to the opposite side on the trend line. Many of those are taking a team that is favored by very little and converting them to an underdog by a similar meager amount. But a few have an eye-popping disagreement, such as Pitt getting flipped from a 7.26-point computer favorite over UCLA to a 4.96-point dog. That one seems to make sense as the Panthers underperformed during the season while the Bruins rose above preseason expectations. But we find no logic in Oregon State getting flipped from a 6.67-point pick to a 0.36-point against Florida. The Gators clearly spent most of the season trending down while the Beavers went up. And Florida has no QB after Anthony Richardson declared for the draft and Jon Kitna was arrested.
A more mild difference is found in the CFP Semifinal Peach Bowl game where the computer takes Ohio State by 2.99. but the computer's trend line has Georgia by 1.56. The computer favors Michigan by 10.75 over TCU in the other semifinal game, but the trend line reduces that margin to 2.50 points.
The worst matchup of a bowl game this year when you use the combined Congrove Computer Rankings of the participants is No. 106 Rice vs. No. 83 Southern Miss (189 combined ranking) in the Lending Tree Bowl. Second place goes to the Quick Lane Bowl with No. 89 Bowling Green against No. 88 New Mexico State for a 177 combined ranking.
Last year, the worst matchup of a game that was actually played 91st-ranked Old Dominion vs. No. 72 Tulsa (163 combined ranking) in the Myrtle Beach Bowl. The second-worst matchup of 2021 went to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl that featured No. 85 Wyoming and No. 74 Kent State (159 combined ranking). Not far behind was the one-off edition of the Frisco FB Classic that was cobbled together at the last minute to insure no eligible team got left behind. It paired No. 82 North Texas with No. 73 Miami, Ohio (155 combined ranking).
These bowl games will be featuring teams that have never previously played each other.
Fiesta - Michigan vs. TCU
Citrus - Purdue vs. LSU
Birmingham - East Carolina vs. Coastal Carolina
Gasparilla - Wake Forest vs. Missouri
Holiday - Oregon vs. North Carolina
Sugar - Alabama vs. Kansas State
Las Vegas - Oregon State vs. Florida
Bahamas - UAB vs. Miami (O)
Hawaii - San Diego State vs. MTSU
Cure - UTSA vs Troy. Both schools are 11-2 this season.
Military - UCF vs. Duke
Guaranteed Rate - Oklahoma State vs. Wisconsin
Camellia - Georgia Southern vs. Buffalo
Quick Lane - Bowling Green vs. New Mexico State.
Peach - Ohio State vs. Georgia. The only previous meeting took place in the 1993 Citrus Bowl which Georgia won 21-14.
Cotton - USC vs. Tulane. Trojans went 2-1 in the only previous meetings from 1932-1946. Only bowl meeting was 1931 season Rose (USC won 21-12).
ReliaQuest - Mississippi State vs. Illinois. They split the only previous meetings in 1923 (Illini won 27-0) and 1980 (Bulldogs won 28-21). This bowl game was known as the Outback Bowl from 1995-2021.
Famous Idaho Potato - Eastern Michigan vs. San Jose State. EMU won the last and only meeting 30-27 in the 1987 California Raisin Bowl.
Armed Forces - Baylor vs. Air Force. Baylor is 3-0 vs. Falcons, but last meeting was 1977. They've never met in a bowl game.
Frisco - Boise State vs. North Texas. Series tied 3-3. Last met in 2000. First met in 1994 1-AA Playoffs.
Alamo - Texas vs. Washington. Texas leads 3-1, including 1-1 in bowl games. Last meeting was 2001 Holiday Bowl.
Liberty - Arkansas vs. Kansas. Only meetings were in 1905 and 1906. Kansas won 6-0 and 37-5.
First Responder - Memphis vs. Utah State. Played 7 times from 1965 -1977 and none since. Memphis leads series 4-3.
Gator - Notre Dame vs. South Carolina. Had 4 meetings from 1976-1984. None before or since. Irish went 3-1.
Arizona - Ohio vs. Wyoming. Wyoming won both meetings by a single point in home-and-home series in 2007 (34-33) and 2008 (21-20).
New Orleans - Western Kentucky vs. South Alabama. The Jaguars won the only previous meeting 31-24 in 2013.
Orange - Clemson vs. Tennessee. Call it the "All-Orange Bowl". Vols lead the series 11-6-2, but they haven't met in 2004 when the Tigers won 27-14 in the only previous bowl meeting.
Texas - Ole Miss vs. Texas Tech. Rebels lead series 4-2 over-all and 3-0 in bowl games. The only time they played home and away games happened in 2002-2003 with the Red Raiders winning both,.
Duke's Mayo - NC State vs. Maryland. The former ACC foes are all tied up at 33-33-4. Last meeting was won by Maryland in 2013 before the Terps joined the Big Ten the next year. They first met in 1909.
Myrtle Beach - Marshall vs. UConn. Only meeting was 2015 St. Petersburg Bowl (now Gasparilla) which was also UConn's last bowl game.
Sun - Pitt vs. UCLA. Teams haven't met since 1972 after playing annually from 1958-1972 (except 1965) as cross-country as Blue & Gold rivals. UCLA went 9-5.
Lending Tree - Southern Miss vs. Rice. Until Southern Miss left for the Sun Belt this year, these teams were CUSA rivals who split 12 meetings from 2007-2021.
New Mexico - BYU vs. SMU. Mormons are 3-0 vs. Methodists with all meetings between 1980-1997, including a 46-45 win in 1980 Holiday Bowl.
Cheez-It - Florida State vs. Oklahoma. Last met in 2011. Sooners are 6-1, including 13-2 win in 2000 season BCS Championship. Only FSU win was 1964 season Gator Bowl.
Pinstripe - Minnesota vs. Syracuse. Last met in 2013 Texas Bowl won 21-17 by the Orange. Gophers are 3-2 in series history.
Independence - Houston vs. Louisiana-Lafayette. Schools are 218 miles apart on Gulf Coast. Bowl game in Shreveport is 212 miles from Lafayette and 240 from Houston. Cougars are 6-3 all-time in series (1946-2006).
Fenway - Louisville vs. Cincinnati. Louisville head coach just left for Cincinnati. Schools were annual rivals from 1966-2013. Bearcats lead 30-22-1.
L.A. - Washington State vs. Fresno State. The only previous 4 meetings took place from 1987-1994 and Wazzu went 3-1.
Music City - Iowa vs Kentucky. A dumb rematch of last year's Citrus Bowl, won 20-17 by Kentucky.
Boca Raton - Toledo vs. Liberty. Rockets 3-0 all-time vs. Flames (1994, 2003, 2007) when Liberty was FCS.
The lingering effects of the Covid pandemic hit the bowl season when several teams had to back out of the games for which they were scheduled to play.
These bowls wound up being canceled:
*-denotes Covid-infected team
Hawaii - *Hawaii vs. Memphis
Military - *Boston College vs. East Carolina
Holiday - *UCLA vs. NC State
Fenway - *Virginia vs. SMU
Arizona - *Boise State vs. Central Michigan
These teams had to pull out:
Boise State (Arizona) - As a result, the game was canceled and Central Michigan was moved to the Sun Bowl to replace Miami.
Boston College (Military) - As a result, the game was canceled and East Carolina did not get to play in a bowl game.
Hawaii (Hawaii) - As a result, the game was canceled and Memphis did not get to play in a bowl game.
Miami (Sun Bowl) - Central Michigan was moved from the canceled Arizona Bowl to take Miami's place against Washington State.
Texas A&M (Gator Bowl) - Rutgers agreed on Dec. 23 to take A&M's place against Wake Forest for the Dec. 31 game.
UCLA (Holiday) - As a result, the game was canceled and NC State did not get to play in a bowl game.
Virginia (Fenway) - As a result, the game was canceled and SMU did not get to play in a bowl game
James Madison - Moved to FBS in 2022 and went 9-3, but was ineligible due to transition season rules
Massachusetts - Joined FBS in 2012. Played in 1964 Tangerine Bowl when that game was a College Division game. Lost 14-13 to East Carolina.
Texas State - Joined FBS in 2012.
None
Of the teams that made it this year, these had the longest wait to get back to a bowl game:
Kansas, 2008
East Carolina, 2014 - Was scheduled to play in 2021 Military Bowl (canceled when Boston College pulled out to due Covid).
Rice, 2014
Bowling Green, 2015
Connecticut, 2015
South Alabama, 2016
New Mexico State, 2017
UCLA, 2017
This teams have the longest continuing current streak of bowl absence:
Louisiana-Monroe, 2012
UNLV, 2013
These teams have the longest continuing current streaks of bowl appearances:
Georgia, 26
Oklahoma, 24
Wisconsin, 21
Alabama, 19
Clemson ,19
Oklahoma State, 17
These teams have the most consecutive bowl victories (last season of a bowl loss in parenthesis).
NOTE: CFP Championship games are NOT bowl games. All teams listed are playing in a bowl game this year, unless otherwise noted.
Alabama, 7 (2014)
Minnesota, 5 (2013)
Kentucky, 4 (2017)
Northwestern, 4 (2015) - Uninvited this year
Syracuse, 4 (2004)
Texas, 4 (2014)
Troy, 4 (2009)
Air Force, 3 (2015)
Duke, 3 (2014)
Fresno State, 3 (2014)
Kansas, 3 (2003)
Liberty, 3 (Never, 3-0)
Louisiana, 3 (2018)
New Mexico State, 3 (Never, 3-0-1)
Ohio, 3 (2016)
Texas A&M, 3 (2017) - Unvited this year. Had to opt-out of the Gator Bowl last year due to Covid issues.
Wyoming, 3 (2016)
Winning streaks snapped last year:
Appalachian State's 6-bowl winning streak was snapped with a 59-38 loss to Western Kentucky in the Boca Raton Bowl. It was the school's first ever bowl loss (6-1).
Tennessee had its 4-bowl win streak ended with a 38-21 loss to South Carolina in the Duke's Mayo Classsic.
Iowa had its 3-bowl winning streak halted with a 20-17 loss to Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl.
These teams have the most consecutive bowl losses (last season of a bowl win in parenthesis). All teams listed are playing in a bowl game this year, unless otherwise noted.
Northern Illinois, 7 (2011) - Uninvited this year
UTEP, 7 (1967) - Uninvited this year
Indiana, 6 (1991) - Uninvited this year
Michigan, 5 (2015)
North Texas, 5 (2013)
Colorado, 4 (2004) - Uninvited this year
Colorado State, 4 (2013) - Uninvited this year
Eastern Michigan, 4 (1987) -
Miami, FLA, 4 (2016) - Had to opt-out of last year's Sun Bowl due to Covid issues.
Toledo, 4 (2011)
Virginia Tech, 4 (2016) - Uninvited this year (First time since 1992. Would have been invited in 2020, but opted-out)
Losing streaks snapped this year:
Central Michigan's 5-bowl losing streak came to an end with its 24-21 victory over Washington State in this season's Sun Bowl.
Charlotte 0-1
South Alabama, 0-2
UTSA, 0-3
(Minimum 20 appearances)
All teams listed are playing in a bowl game this year, unless otherwise noted.
Utah, 18-7 (.720)
Mississippi, 25-14 (.641)
Oklahoma State, 21-11 (.656)
USC, 35-20 (.636)
Penn State, 30-18-2 (.612)
Alabama, 42-24-3 (.630)
Syracuse, 15-9-1 (.620)
Florida State, 28-17-2 (.617)
Georgia, 34-20-3 (.613)
All teams listed are playing in a bowl game this year, unless otherwise noted.
Alabama, 42
USC, 35
Georgia, 34
Oklahoma, 31
Texas, 31
Penn State, 30
Tennessee, 29
Florida State, 28
LSU, 26
Nebraska, 26 - Uninvited this year
Georgia Tech, 25 - Uninvited this year
Mississippi, 25
Ohio State, 25
Auburn, 24 - Uninvited this year
Clemson, 24
Florida, 24
Michigan, 21
The FBS was 112-8 (.933) vs. the FCS this year, and is 1,686-148 (.919) since we began tracking this in 2003.
116 of the 131 FBS schools played at least one such game while Appalachian State, Army, Marshall and New Mexico State each played two.
Here are the FCS wins in 2022:
September 2: William & Mary 41, Charlotte 24
September 3: Delaware14, Navy 7
September 10: Weber State 35, Utah State 7
September 10: Incarnate Word 55, Nevada 41
September 10: Holy Cross 37, Buffalo 31
September 10: Eastern Kentucky 59, Bowling Green 57 (7 OT's)
September 17: Southern Illinois 31, Northwestern 24
September 24: Sacramento State 41, Colorado State 10
GEORGIA - Won 15 straight over-all. Won 11 straight true road games.
Last: Won 50-30 over LSU in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta on Saturday, December 3.
Next: FBS Playoff vs. Ohio State in Peach Bowl on December 31.
ALABAMA - Won 20 straight home games.
Last: Won 49-27 at home over Auburn on Saturday, November 26.
Next: Kansas State in Sugar Bowl on December 31.
MICHIGAN - Won 15 straight conference games, including B1G Championship games.
Last: Won 43-22 over Purdue in Big Ten Championship game in Indianapolis on Saturday, December 3.
Next: FBS Playoff vs. TCU in Fiesta Bowl on December 31.
NORTHWESTERN - Lost 11 straight over-all, and 8 straight at home.
Last: Lost 41-3 at home to Illinois on Saturday, November 26.
Next: Season complete.
USF - Lost 13 straight conference games.
Last: Lost 46-39 at home to UCF on Saturday, November 26.
Next: Season complete.
MASSACHUSETTS - Lost 15 straight to FBS schools, and 24 straight road games.
Last: Lost 44-7 at home to Army on Saturday, November 26.
Next: Season complete.