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Alabama Football: Only six teams can win ’22 National Championship

ByRonald Evans|
ATLANTA, GA - DECEMBER 31: Bo Scarbrough #9 of the Alabama Crimson Tide runs in a touchdown against the Washington Huskies during the 2016 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at the Georgia Dome on December 31, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - DECEMBER 31: Bo Scarbrough #9 of the Alabama Crimson Tide runs in a touchdown against the Washington Huskies during the 2016 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at the Georgia Dome on December 31, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
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Alabama Football
(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

2019 Playoff (Three Real Contenders)

  • Playoff teams were 1) LSU, 2) Ohio State, 3) Clemson and 4) Oklahoma.
  • Georgia and Oregon were the only other two teams in the Playoff picture. Both had two losses and were not real contenders.
  • It turned out, that neither was Okaloma a contender, losing in the semis to LSU, 63-28.
  • The real contenders were LSU, Clemson and Ohio State.
  • LSU won the Championship convincingly, 42-25 over Clemson.

2020 Playoff (Three Real Contenders)

  • Playoff teams were 1) Alabama, 2) Clemson, 3) Ohio State and 4) Notre Dame.
  • No other teams had a valid claim to be in the Playoff field.
  • Alabama easily beat Notre Dame in the semis, proving the Irish were again, not a real contender.
  • Alabama beat Ohio State 52-24 for the Championship.

2021 Playoff (Two Real Contenders)

  • Playoff teams were 1) Alabama, 2) Michigan, 3) Georgia and 4) Cincinnati.
  • There were no other real contenders for Playoff spots.
  • Neither Michigan nor Cincinnati fared well in the semis, suggesting 2021 had only two real contenders.
  • Georgia beat Alabama for the Championship.

The CFB Playoff format should be expanded to eight or 12 teams. But, not because legitimate contenders are often excluded. As the review shows, only once has a 6-team field been needed.

National Champions are being fairly won with four-team fields. Complaints about lack of fairness are just noise. The Playoffs should be expanded because more teams need to be involved in the entertainment extravaganza. That is best for college football.

What will happen is the same few teams will keep winning, while early rounds will see blowouts. Every few years, there will be upsets. For college football fans, it will be great fun.

What about Alabama Football and the 2022 National Championship?

None one can know at this point what team will win it all, but Alabama Crimson Tide fans have good reasons to believe Alabama Football is the favorite. There are other good reasons why, again in 2022, no more than six teams (and probably less) will be real contenders at the end.

What we could do at this point is select more than 100 teams having no chance of a National Championship, or in fairness, maybe almost no chance.

The data sources for this post were CFB Sports Reference and College Poll Archive.

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