Ranking every year of the CFP four-team era
By Josh Yourish
. . 2021. player. 2021. Sugar Bowl. 2021. 9. Rose Bowl. 523
- National Championship: Alabama 52 Ohio State 24
- Rose Bowl: No. 1 Alabama 31 No. 4 Notre Dame 14
- Sugar Bowl: No. 3 Ohio State 49 No. 2 Clemson 28
The CFP is always better when it features great quarterbacks and the 2021 CFP certainly did. In the Sugar Bowl, Justin Fields got his revenge on Trevor Lawrence and Clemson for a 2020 Fiesta Bowl loss.
Fields threw six touchdown passes against Clemson but didn’t save enough for Mac Jones and Alabama. The Crimson Tide cruised past Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl, which wasn’t even played in Pasadena, to set up an Ohio State vs. Alabama final.
While the semifinals were headlined by the quarterbacks, the national championship game, like the rest of the season, was stolen by a wide receiver. DeVonta Smith, the Heisman Trophy winner, caught 12 passes for 215 yards and three touchdowns.
Ohio State didn’t have an answer for Smith, Jaylen Waddle, and Henry Ruggs III as Jones threw for 464 yards and five touchdowns. Alabama kept pouring it on in the second half and Justin Fields finished with just 17 completions for 194 yards and one touchdown pass.