Could this be the best national championship game the CFP has seen?

The 2023 CFP National Championship is set between Georgia and TCU, and it’s difficult to imagine a title game matchup better than that.

This season’s CFP is quite different from what we’re used to, and for multiple reasons. Not only did it include TCU, but it didn’t include Alabama. Also, two teams from the same division—Michigan and Ohio State—managed to make it; that is something that had never happened before this bracket.

With a playoff that unique, we were bound to see an unfamiliar championship matchup, and that is the perfect word to describe Georgia-TCU. But you know what? College football fans could not be happier to say that.

In fact, the pairing is great for two reasons. The first one is that it satisfies the folks that have been craving something new. But while that’s all well and good, the second reason is one that I feel is even better: It provides us with what is objectively a perfect note to end the season on.

Everyone loves a good underdog story, a classic “David-and-Goliath” showdown, and that is exactly what the college football world will be getting when the Dogs face the Frogs.

Looking at Georgia, its placement in this scenario is rather obvious. The Bulldogs are the defending champs, America’s top-seeded team, looking to continue its stretch of dominance and finish with a rarely seen 15-0 record. As for TCU, it is the polar opposite.

While Georgia is out here flaunting its building blocks for a dynasty, the Horned Frogs entered this season with new head coach Sonny Dykes after a 5-7 showing in 2021. One could assume that the doubts surrounding their circumstances died out after ripping a 12-0 run, but that was not the case.

Unbeaten regular seasons are impressive regardless of the competition faced along the way, but that fact doesn’t stop people’s mouths from running. TCU was a victim of this behavior, with concerns rising due to the weakness of the Big 12 and the unremarkable final scores we were seeing despite it.

The overtime loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 title game did the most harm to the Frogs’ hype, with some going as far as to say that they did not deserve a spot in the CFP as a result.

With that said, to see them still make a semifinal is one thing, but to see them advance by dropping 51 points on a physical, well-coached Michigan squad has left virtually the entire country in their corner. And now they have to face what we’ve assumed is a heavily superior team that belongs to the villainous SEC? Hollywood couldn’t have written it any better.

The game itself is not promised to be a great one (especially when compared to the two semifinal battles that it’s following up), but the implications going into it are nonetheless perfect—and that’s more than enough for every college football fan to be glued to a TV on Jan. 9.