The college football regular season has come to an end, and four teams have been selected to play for the national championship. On Sunday, the College Football Playoff committee announced that Alabama, Michigan, Georgia and Cincinnati will play in the 2021 College Football Playoff. Alabama will play Cincinnati in the Cotton Bowl while Michigan will face Georgia in the Orange Bowl. Both games will be played on New Year’s Eve.
Georgia, a team that is looking to win its first national title since 1980, is the only team in the College Football Playoff to not win its conference. On Saturday, the Bulldogs lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship 41-24, and it was their first loss of the year. Alabama needed to win to clinch a playoff spot. The Crimson Tide now have a chance to defend their title and win their 19th national championship and seventh since 2009.
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“SEC Championship Game is always a tough game,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said after the SEC Championship game, per 247Sports. “You look back through the years, we played 1 and 2 a couple times, 1 and 3 a couple times. So it’s not easy, and I think that our players really prepared well for this game and executed extremely well, fixed a lot of problems that we had.
“So just a tremendous victory, team victory. Defense got a couple of turnovers, couple of fourth-down stops that were very important. Offensive line did a really good job of blocking their pressures. Gave Bryce the opportunity to operate, which he did a magnificent job of all night. So great team win for us.”
Michigan is in the College Football Playoff for the first time. The Wolverines earned a big win against Ohio State to win the Big Ten East Division. And on Saturday, Michigan took down Iowa in the Big Ten Championship game. Michigan is looking to win its 12th national championship and first since 1997.
Cincinnati also is playing in the College Football Playoff for the first time. The Bearcats have made history by making the tournament becoming the first Group of 5 team to ever make the college football Playoff. Of the four teams, Cincinnati is the only team to have a perfect record (13-0). The Bearcats’ most notable win of the year is Notre Dame, which happened in October. They had an undefeated regular season and defeated Houston in the AAC Championship game on Saturday.
