The Easiest College Football Playoff Field of All-Time Is Set

There you have it. Alabama, Michigan, Georgia and Cincinnati will be the four teams competing for the national title in this year's College Football Playoff.

There was really no drama in this year's announcement whatsoever, unless you were one of those weirdos who swore up and down to the bitter end that there was simply no way the committee was going to put in a Group of Five team and that Cincinnati would be left out — despite the fact the only real options would be a Notre Dame team the Bearcats beat in South Bend or a two-loss Big 12 champ Baylor. I'm glad we can finally put that narrative to rest. Cincy was the first G5 team that actually deserved to be in the Playoff and it's in the Playoff.

The only real question was where the teams would be seeded after Alabama handed Georgia its first loss of the season on Saturday. There was an argument for Michigan to move from No. 2 to No. 1, but that would have necessitated moving UGA all the way down to No. 4 to avoid a rematch with Alabama. And with the Tide and Wolverines both 12-1 conference champions, Bama's dominant win over the Bulldogs is enough justification to have it in the top spot.

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I love both of these matchups. Each consists of a team making its first Playoff appearance against an SEC stalwart that expected to be here since spring practice. If we're going to see a Michigan-Cincinnati national title game, those two are going to have to go through the big, bad boys from the SEC — and I'm sure those teams are eager to do just that.

We're less than four weeks away from the semifinals on New Year's Eve. Can't wait.