On Dec. 3 the College Football Playoff committee officially announced what teams would be playing for a spot in the National Championship on New Year’s Day of 2024. Those teams are as follows: Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama. The next two out were Florida State and Georgia, with Ohio State being the third team out. This year was more on the controversial side of things as going into conference championship week, there were still eight teams with a realistic shot of making the playoff, those being the seven already listed and Oregon who currently sits at eighth in the rankings. There were tons of different combinations of teams that could get in depending on how the Championship games played out. It all started at the Pac-12 championship on Friday, Dec. 1.

The Washington Huskies faced off against the Oregon Ducks for the Pac-12 championship and an eventual CFP spot. The Huskies sat at 12-0 and were ranked third, while the Ducks were 11-1 and ranked fifth, their only loss was to Washington earlier this season. Both teams were considered legit national title contenders but there was only room for one in the playoff. Washington would eventually come out on top 34-31 despite a late Oregon surge to make it a three-point game, the Huskies were able to run out the clock to win. Their spot was safe in the playoff and Oregon was effectively eliminated.

The following day the next game was the Big-12 championship between seventh-ranked Texas and 18th ranked Oklahoma State, Texas had to win to keep their hopes alive but there were no guarantees even with a win. They would proceed to blow out the Cowboys 49-21 in a game where they took their foot off the gas in the second half, they very well could’ve scored 60+. It looked like they would get in because of how dominant they looked, but still, there were no guarantees.

Later the SEC championship kicked off between first-ranked Georgia and eighth-ranked Alabama. This was an interesting game because it was said to still be possible that if Georgia lost they could still get in, and Alabama had to win to give themselves a chance. It was close the whole way but Alabama controlled the game and won 27-24. That game effectively put loads of pressure on the Committee and made their job that much more difficult.

The Big Ten Championship had a role in these decisions, but if Michigan won then it wouldn’t really change anything. Michigan beat Iowa 26-0 and although the Michigan offense didn’t look like anything spectacular, there was nothing in this game that would cause anyone to change their mind on Michigan, and since Georgia lost it was pretty clear they would be the number one seed. 

The final game of the day was the ACC Championship, 12-0 Florida State vs 10-2 Louisville. The most controversial part of this was that FSU was undefeated and ranked fourth, but people were questioning whether or not they were deserving of a playoff spot. The reason, starting quarterback and Heisman candidate Jordan Travis got hurt two weeks prior. They would win in ugly fashion, 16-6, but considering Louisville was ranked 14th and the FSU defense dominated them, it’s still a quality win.

With all of this concluding Saturday night, there were many questions, but the biggest was, is the committee picking the four best, or the four most deserving? The four most deserving would probably be Michigan, Washington, FSU, and Texas or Alabama. But the four best would be Michigan, Washington, Texas, and Bama or Georgia. This question was answered at roughly 11:30 on Sunday when they announced the top four as Michigan, Washington, Texas, and Alabama. Florida State was irate with this decision, as the committee has never left out an undefeated Power Five conference champion until this year. They will play Georgia in the Orange Bowl, where if they win they will surely have a right to claim themselves as ‘National Champions’ similar to what UCF did in 2017. 

Although FSU was left out and there is controversy, there is no doubt that Alabama has a good shot to win the National Championship, and there would be controversy if they were left out, but no matter what the committee chose someone was going to be mad.