CFP 2021: Alabama vs Georgia
Despite what the odds makers are saying about the CFP 2022 game Monday night, we feel one evident, primary advantage between these two programs makes the difference. We go with Alabama. As our Auburn buddy Charlie Murren has always said, you never go against HC Nick Saban. He loses players and coaches annually. He just replaces both with the same talent level. The key variable remains though – him. All under Nick Saban want to come play or coach for him to move on to a better, guaranteed opportunity. Ask Kirby Smart, HC of Georgia. Until this year, no former coach of Saban’s, except for Jimbo Fisher of Texas A&M, has beaten this former mentor.
Professor Saban takes us to class
Saban has college football down to a science to get to the CFP 2022. The momentum at Alabama will never change as long as he’s coaching there. Forget the “SEC” chants! SEC? The SEC fans bases might just as well chant, “Roll Tide!” He gets the best talent before anyone else can. Every season, he softens up his well-scouted opposition – the coaches, QB experience, perceived strengths that are weaknesses, what needy FCS school will pay for play. And he doesn’t worry about it because nobody will judge him for it. He pays them a nice fee.
When Professor Saban speaks…
CFP 2022 boredom?
However, it’s just taken the fun for fans of 120+ other teams of anticipating who will be in the CFP every year. Alabama, of course. A handful of about five other “usual suspects”. A surprise team from among the Power Five conferences. Add a possible longshot from about another 115 FBS schools. Ho-hum. In the end, everyone knows who will win. Attendance and TV ratings will drop in Monday’s finale at Indianapolis. No matter how uneventful, not Saban’s problem.
Times have changed for good
As we stated early in the season, despite this advantage of Alabama’s and of a few others, and now add the transfer portal and the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) conundrum, we at collegefootballfan.com take each game we attend as an equitable matchup. For the sheer enjoyment, we look forward to attending a hopefully competitive college football game each week. Why care about the CFP 2022? After recruiting results come out, the Top Ten has already been determined. Now the transfer portal exists. Need an experienced QB? Just cut a deal.
We still love the games for what they are
We achieved good success this season with our goals. We attended 21 games. Eleven resulted in margins of ten points or less. Many scores not finalized until the waning moments. An exciting OT in a bowl game, a one-point victory, six others won by two or three points, and four more settled by less than 10 made for many exciting games.
Before bowl season, seven teams of 28 seen in 2021 landed on the Top 25. Twenty-two FBS teams went on to play in post season games. In the FCS, East Tennessee State finished No. 8 overall.
Other games ending in wider margins brought us satisfaction in other aspects – attending an annual rivalry, attending games at new venues, watching a convenient, weekday game nearby, or adding some FCS teams we had never seen compete before. We considered attending the CFP 2022 in Indianapolis this Monday night, but considering the prices and fees of tickets, though dropping, we can’t get excited about attending a rematch that we don’t see being much different from the previous result. Every year we say, we intend to get to the CFP game eventually, but this one just seems too anti-climactic. Other fans seem to feel the same. Check the availability of tickets still available for sale on-line for CFP 2022 at this late date.
As of today, all these sections in purple at Lucas Oil Stadium have tickets available for Monday night.
2021 – wrapping up another great season for collegefootballfan.com
In the end, we say we saw great teams among the 28 we watched in person this year. Several won conference championships. We hope that some year all of these title winners will participate in a larger CFP tournament. Of the 28 on our slate, 19 achieved winning records. Of these 19, 15 garnered nine wins or more! Three teams finished 6-6. The remaining six programs played under .500 with Indiana winning the least with only two wins. However, they played well when we watched them against Western Kentucky (9-5) early this season winning, 33-31.
Among the top winners with 13 were No. 4 Cincinnati and No. 23 Louisiana. Surprising No. 7 Baylor and No. 20 Houston won 12 games with bowl wins over Ole Miss and Auburn respectively. Coastal Carolina, Utah State, and No. 17 Wake Forest took 11 wins each, including bowl victories. Appalachian State and No. 13 BYU came up with ten wins each, but both fell in their respective bowl contests. Finishing successful seasons with nine victories each, we saw UAB, Army, NC State, Purdue, and Western Kentucky. Teams we attended games for more than once included Navy (3), BYU, Virginia, Wake, and WKU all with two. We attended our first Independence Bowl and our sixth Music City.
Did Western Kentucky QB Bailey Zappe’s draft stock go up when he set seasonal passing marks by playing in the Roofclaim.com Boca Raton Bowl? How will his value and his career compare to Pitt QB Kenny Pickett who opted out?
Beware Alabama, you play Austin Peay next year!
We attended four FCS games featuring Austin Peay three times and UT Chattanooga twice. These two opened our season with the APU Governors upsetting the preseason-ranked Moccasins, 30-20. Both participated in upsets later in the season. The Governors fell to Tennessee State (5-6) in an Ohio Valley Conference game, 24-22. Later, they blasted 6-5 Murray State on the road, 47-7.
In a Southern Conference contest, the UTC Moccs upset the No. 7 East Tennessee State Buccaneers at home, 21-16. For ETSU, the Moccs defeated them for their only loss in the regular season. Their next loss came in the quarterfinals of the FCS playoff to North Dakota State who will be playing for their ninth FCS championship in 11 years when it clashes with Montana State on January 8 in Frisco, Texas. Hopefully, in the future, the CFP for the FBS championship will be modeled like the current FCS championship format. More teams, more excitement. Next year, we propose Alabama play North Dakota State in a grand finale. What the heck? Maybe all the Bama players will opt-out and the Bison will win. Bottom line, college football is becoming more and more about the money than ever before.
By Steve Koreivo, ed. Author of “Tales from the Tailgate: From the fan who’s seen ‘em all!” Click on the title to remember college games played over the past 40 years when we saw every FBS team play at least once.
Like Cincinnati fans who celebrated their win over to Houston to earn a bid to the CFP, this is the way we feel at the end of our great season even though we’re not going on to Indianapolis either!
