College football: Imagining a 64-team playoff from 2022 season

Results – College Football Playoff Quarterfinals to Championship 

East

No. 1 Ohio State 43, No. 2 Alabama 38

South

No. 1 Georgia 52, No. 7 Central Florida 13

Midwest

No. 2 Tennessee 45, No. 5 Texas 31

West

No. 1 TCU 35, No. 2 Utah 34

Results – Semifinals

No. 1 Georgia 42, No. 1 Ohio State 41

No. 1 TCU 34, No. 2 Tennessee 28

Championship Game

No. 1 Georgia 65, No. 1 TCU 7

It’s awfully difficult to project another team defeating Georgia after the way the Bulldogs manhandled TCU in the real 2022 national championship game. That obliteration, however, was only made possible after Ohio State missed a potential game-winning field goal in the final moments of their Dec. 31, 2022 semifinal loss to Georgia.

The Bulldogs weren’t invincible, but in this fictional 64-team bracket, we’ll imagine that Georgia is crowned national champs. The ‘Dawgs would face other tough tests en route to this national title, such as No. 4 seed Tulane in the Round of 16 and potentially Clemson and/or Ohio State before reaching the championship game — and one can’t assume with 100 percent confidence that Georgia would have emerged unscathed. 

Other highlights of the Quarterfinals include No. 1 seed Ohio State in the East Region defeating a talented  No. 2 seed Alabama squad that never quite found its footing in the 2022 regular season and No. 2 seed Tennessee knocking off No. 5 seed Texas in the Midwest Region.

One more obvious plus to the 64-team football format is that, like in college basketball, teams need a successful season just to reach the CFP. From this particular bracket, consider teams like Wake Forest, which finished last year with eight wins as a power conference member, and Marshall, which finished with nine wins that included a defeat of Notre Dame. Both teams finished just on the wrong side of the bubble and missed the 2022 64-team college football playoff in this design.