First four-team playoff and last four-team playoff both had Big Ten vs Pac-12 for the national title

2014 season: Ohio State-Oregon championship game. 2023 season: Michigan-Washington. How about that?

Time is a flat circle. Have you heard that saying before?

Well, it’s true. In the 2014 season, when the four-team College Football Playoff began, it was Ohio State and Oregon facing off in the national championship game in January of 2015. The Cardale Jones-Ezekiel Elliott duo led the Buckeyes past Marcus Mariota and the Ducks in the national title game.

Now, with the final four-team playoff field reduced to two teams, it is another Big Ten matchup with the Pac-12: Washington against Michigan for the title.

Ohio State had plenty of NFL talent in that 2015 national championship game: Curtis Samuel, Michael Thomas, Eli Apple, and the others mentioned previously. Oregon had Mariota and Royce Freeman, but the Buckeyes got the win.

This time, both Michigan and Washinton are loaded with future NFL players, plus a head coach in Jim Harbaugh who is a popular pick to go to the NFL once this season comes to an end.

Nearly a decade later, and in the final four-team College Football Playoff field, the Pac-12 and Big Ten face off again.

Time is a flat circle, and the SEC is actually going to watch the title game without anyone in the hunt, as was the case nine years ago.

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