Final takeaways from College Football Playoff and bowl games

Big Ten a step behind SEC

A rematch of Michigan and Ohio State for the national championship would have been epic and frankly, it’s something both fanbases will be thinking about for a long time.

Not the rematch necessarily, but the way their teams lost very winnable semifinal games. Ohio State was up two touchdowns in the fourth quarter and had a game-winning field goal attempt. It was a 50-yarder but Noah Ruggles just hit from 49 yards out. It was indoors.

You expect kickers to make that kick more often than not and Ruggles just pulled it left. The Ohio State defense also has questions to answer after allowing 87 points in the last two games.

As far as Michigan, the Wolverines threw two pick-6s, fumbled at the one and had a turnover on downs at the one, and lost by six. This might not be the Chris Webber timeout game but the hurt will linger for a long time, especially if Jim Harbaugh leaves for the NFL.

His call on the Philly special cost his team a shot at a national title, along with a bunch of mistakes and a couple of poor calls by officials.

Yet, it adds to a larger theme of Big Ten struggles in the College Football Playoff. The Buckeyes are the only team in the league to win a playoff game — winning three total. Ohio State won two in 2014 to win the national title and in the semifinals in 2020.

Michigan is now 0-2. Michigan State also lost in the playoff as did Ohio State in trips in 2016, 2019, and now 2022. That’s a 3-5 record overall and a big reason why it’s hard to say the Big Ten is equal to the SEC because, in terms of playoff production, it’s not.

Georgia has as many in the last two years as the Big Ten has ever had and if the Bulldogs beat TCU, it will have more in 2022-23 than the Big Ten has in a decade.

That puts it all in perspective. Plus, if the playoff was expanded this year and Alabama was in, I have a feeling it would be another Alabama-Georgia matchup for the natty.