CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- College football's playoffs are here to fill your New Year's Eve TV quota.
Top-ranked Alabama is almost a two-touchdown favorite to beat Cincinnati, which is the first team from the so-called 'Group of Five' conferences to make the playoffs. All the Bearcats had to do to get to the top four was go undefeated, beat Notre Dame in South Bend in a game scheduled back in 2019, then see the Irish recover to finish #5 in the country. Anyone can do it, right?
Alabama has a loss - an October shoot-out at Texas A&M - but it also has Heisman winner Bryce Young at quarterback, a punishing defense led by linebacker Will Anderson Jr., and a 17-point SEC championship game win over Georgia on its resume.
Those Bulldogs are favored to beat the Wolverines by about a touchdown, depending where you look. Michigan is led by defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who finished second in the Heisman voting. Plus, the Wolverines would get to play something like a home game in the national championship if they win - the title game is at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, where Michigan flattened Iowa 42-3 in the Big Ten Championship Game.
But Georgia's defense is punishing too. The Bulldogs have held opponents to single digits eight times this year. In fact, Alabama's 41 points against the Bulldogs in the SEC Championship game were more than Georgia had allowed in all of its games since Halloween - combined.
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