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Every College Football Playoff game winner since the four-team format’s inception

In honor of the final four-team College Football Playoff, here’s a look back at every playoff matchup.

Doing away with the BCS, the College Football Playoff four-team format was implemented for the 2014-15 college football season, and it’s been an entertaining ride since then.

Year after year, we’ve seen heated debates throughout the season about which teams have the best wins and the strongest schedules or who passes the eye test with flying colors. And then, of course, when the final four teams are announced, there’s usually at least one livid fan base.

But the 2023-24 season will be the last under the four-team format, as the College Football Playoff field will expand to 12 teams for the 2024-25 season.

In honor of the final four-team College Football Playoff, here’s a look back at every playoff matchup and winner since the format’s inception.

College football’s top-25 2024 recruiting classes after the early signing period

With the end of the early signing period, see which teams have the best 2024 recruiting classes so far.

High school football players from the class of 2024 locked in their college commitments this week during the early signing period, which ran from Wednesday through Friday.

With some of the best-rated recruits having signed their National Letters of Intent, the class rankings are beginning to take shape and giving us a good idea of which teams attracted the best talent this time around.

The usual suspects like Georgia, Alabama and Ohio State are right there at the top, and Miami continued its upward climb too, while other teams like USC aren’t quite as high as they were last year.

Here’s a look at the top-25 classes as of Dec. 23, based on composite rankings from 247Sports.

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10 winners and losers from College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six selection Sunday

Beyond the top four, which college football teams won (or lost) on selection Sunday?

It was no surprise that No. 1 Michigan and No. 2 Washington — after winning their respective conference championships this weekend following strong seasons — made the College Football Playoff this year. But Texas and Alabama getting in over Florida State rattled and enraged fans, who are surely looking forward to a 12-team playoff next season.

But as Michigan will face Alabama in the Rose Bowl semifinal and Washington will take on Texas in the Sugar Bowl semifinal, there are other New Year’s Six bowl games to consider, leading to a variety of winners and losers on this selection Sunday.

So now that we have the final 2023-24 College Football Playoff picture and the major bowl game lineups, here’s a breakdown of our top-10 winners and losers in the committee’s final rankings.

College football fans went ballistic after Alabama made the playoff over Florida State

An undefeated power 5 conference champion wasn’t good enough for the playoff selection committee

The College Football Playoff selection committee had an impossible task on Sunday.

Faced with six teams who have exceptional resumes — and only four spots available for the playoff — the committee was forced to leave out a very deserving team. Michigan and Washington both locked up playoff spots by going undefeated and winning their conference title games. So the only question was who would they choose to scorn?

A Georgia team ranked No. 1 heading into Championship Week whose only loss came to No. 8 Alabama in the SEC title game?

A one-loss Alabama team who won the SEC?

A one-loss Texas team who won the Big 12 and defeated Alabama earlier in the year?

Or an undefeated Florida State team that didn’t look dominate while winning the ACC with a third-string quarterback?

In the end the committee chose to leave out Florida State in favor of Alabama, citing player health and recent performance of the two teams.

That wasn’t a good enough explanation for college football fans immediately lashed out. Fortunately, the switch to a 12-team playoff in 2024-25 should avoid a similar fate next year. But that’s little comfort to Florida State now.

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Alabama beat Georgia for the SEC title, and college football fans want the conference excluded from the playoff

The SEC has never been left out of the College Football Playoff, but that could change this year.

The SEC has never been excluded from the College Football Playoff since the four-team format was established in the 2014-15 season, but there’s a very real chance that could change in 2023.

One of the biggest nightmare scenarios for the playoff selection committee — No. 8 Alabama beating No. 1 Georgia — became a reality on Saturday with the Crimson Tide knocking off the previously undefeated Bulldogs with a 27-24 victory.

So what now for the College Football Playoff picture?

A lot of it really depends on how the remaining conference championship games play out Saturday, particularly the Big Ten title game between No. 2 Michigan and No. 16 Iowa and the ACC championship game between No. 4 Florida State and No. 14 Louisville.

With No. 3 Washington beating No. 5 Oregon on Friday in the Pac-12 championship game, the undefeated Huskies are pretty much a lock for the playoff, and one-loss Texas – which beat Alabama earlier this season — won the Big 12 title Saturday over Oklahoma State. And this is a specific scenario the committee was surely hoping to avoid.

Assuming Michigan and Florida State win, they’re presumably in the playoff with Washington. So what of that final spot? Does it go to one-loss conference champion Texas or one-loss conference champion Alabama? Head-to-head matchups should matter, right? Is Georgia doomed specifically because of this loss, despite entering as the No. 1 team?

Again, we won’t know how things will shake out until after conference championship weekend ends and the playoff committee announces the four teams Sunday.

But college football fans sure are eager for the SEC possibly being left out of the playoff.

Ranking 6 College Football Playoff scenarios by chaos potential

Which College Football Playoff scenario would be a nightmare for the selection committee?

Editor’s note: This story was originally published Dec. 1 and has since been updated.

College football’s conference championship weekend is here, so we’re just days away from the College Football Playoff selection committee announcing which four teams will compete for a national title in the final year of this format.

The four-team playoff format has delivered a decade of heated debates over the value of things like the eye test versus head-to-head matchups and whether it’s really the four best teams or the four most deserving teams. And the hypothetical scenarios and speculation are abundant until (and often after) the committee makes its decision.

It’s chaos sometimes, and we here at For The Win love and root for chaos.

This season’s playoff race certainly has been an interesting one, and headed into conference championship weekend, there are still eight teams with varying degrees of reasonable paths to the playoff. So since this is the final four-team College Football Playoff, we’re taking a look at some of the biggest chaos scenarios that could create a nightmare for the selection committee and leave fans enraged regardless.

RELATED: The path to the College Football Playoff for each of the top-8 teams in contention

Verne Lundquist’s surprise return for the final SEC on CBS game had college fans in their feelings

It’s only right to have Uncle Verne on the final SEC on CBS broadcast

Think back on your favorite SEC on CBS moment and there’s a better chance than not you’re hearing the voice of legendary play-by-play man Verne Lundquist call the action.

“Uncle Verne” became synonymous with SEC Saturdays and you always knew it was a big game whenever he was welcoming you into a broadcast.

Lundquist officially retired from calling college football and basketball games in 2016, but this Saturday marked the final SEC on CBS game before the deal between the conference and network expires. Soon it’ll be the Big Ten on CBS and the big SEC games will be shown elsewhere.

So before No. 1 Georgia and No. 8 Alabama kicked off in the SEC championship game, CBS gave everyone the one thing it wanted: one last moment with Verne on an SEC broadcast.

During a pregame video, the 83-year-old Lundquist got college fans everywhere ready to settle in for some big time action.

This had college fans everywhere in their feelings.

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How to buy Alabama tickets for SEC Football Championship Game

Want to watch Alabama battle Georgia for the SEC Football Championship game in person? Select tickets are still available.

For the second time in three years, the Alabama Crimson Tide will take on the top team in the country for the SEC Championship.

No. 8 Alabama, winners of the SEC West, will take on No. 1 Georgia, winners of the SEC East, at 4 p.m. EST on Saturday, Dec. 2nd at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

There are still tickets available for the game, including a few field level options. As of publication, the cheapest available price per ticket was $318.

Want to see Alabama go for its seventh SEC championship in the past ten years in person? Check out Vivid Seats to find the perfect Alabama ticket for you and anybody else you want sitting beside you as the Tide look to make history.

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The 8 biggest college football rivalries, ranked

A definitive ranking of the biggest rivalries in college football.

College football is filled with chaos and weirdness, and so much of that is because of the heated rivalries that often run generations deep. So we’re here to rank some of the biggest in the sport.

With so many to choose from and everyone having their own biases and preferences for what makes a good rivalry, this is an extremely difficult task. So, I took an unbiased approach and went to the internet to find a few existing lists to use in the creation of a composite ranking.

Below is a list of the only eight rivalries to make each list I found and their average ranking on those lists. It should give you a good idea of which rivalries are popularly considered the biggest, even if it’s not the most comprehensive.

College Football Playoff watch: With 5 undefeated top teams, who has the best playoff chances in Week 13?

This College Football Playoff race is a tight one.

Conference championship weekend is still more than a week away, but college football’s Week 13 games still have plenty of College Football Playoff implications with two of the top teams facing off and pretty much everyone else in a must-win situation. If they want to keep their playoff hopes alive, that is.

The latest playoff rankings dropped Tuesday, and while the top-3 teams remained the same as Week 12, Washington moved into the No. 4 spot as Florida State dropped to No. 5.

But the playoff rankings are notably different from each team’s playoff chance per ESPN’s Playoff Predictor algorithm, which still has Florida State with the fourth-best shot at the playoff.

The Playoff Predictor utilizes an algorithm that factors in the same considerations as the selection committee, such as strength of record, number of losses and conference championships (or independent status), along with the Football Power Index.

Here’s a look at the top teams with the best chances to make the College Football Playoff, along with their chances of advancing to the title game and winning it all, according to ESPN’s Playoff Predictor, as of Wednesday.