Ranking 2022-23 College Football Playoff, NY6 bowls by watchability
After a wild weekend of conference championship games, and an unforgettable season, we have reached the finish line. We saw Alabama fail to make the College Football Playoff for only the second time in the history of the playoff era, the dominance of Georgia, and the rise of new contenders in the Big 12.
After seeing the New Year’s Six and College Football Playoff announced on Sunday, we’re going to rank the games from least to most exciting (spoiler: they should all be fun).
6. Cotton Bowl (USC vs. Tulane)
As we stated earlier, I think that all of these games have the potential to be great matchups. Somebody has to be ranked sixth, and so we went with the Cotton Bowl.
The Cotton Bowl will be a matchup between Tulane, one of the best stories of the season, and USC trying to bounce back from their nightmare beatdown in the Pac-12 title game to Utah.
Tulane has completely transformed its program, going from 2-10 last season to 10-2 this year, culminating in a 45-28 win at home over No. 22 UCF to win the AAC title. With a dominant rushing attack led by AAC player of the year Tyjae Spears (1,376 yards rushing and 15 touchdowns), the Green Wave are no slouch when being compared to past Group of Five champs.
The biggest question regarding USC, and this bowl game, is the health and desire surrounding the Trojans’ program. After the first quarter on Friday night, the Trojans were leading Utah 14-3 and appeared to be three quarters away from not only a conference championship but Heisman favorite Caleb Williams was hobbled.
Fast forward a few days later, and it’s fair to wonder how motivated USC is, while there are going to be plenty of questions about whether stars like Williams or Jordan Addison will want to play.
With current spreads showing USC only a 2-3 point favorite, Vegas shares similar concerns about the type of team that will be playing Tulane in the Cotton Bowl.