Ranking every year of the CFP four-team era
By Josh Yourish
. 527. 2023. . Peach Bowl. 2023. 2023. Fiesta Bowl. 3. player
- National Championship: Georgia 65 TCU 7
- Fiesta Bowl: No. 3 TCU 51 No. 2 Michigan 45
- Peach Bowl: No. 1 Georgia 42 No. 4 Ohio State 41
It’s hard to include a CFP year that gave us the most lopsided championship game of this era and arguably the worst game of the era in the top 3, but that’s how good the semifinals were.
The New Year’s Eve slate began with a chaotic matchup between TCU and Michigan. The Horned Frogs came in as 7.5 points underdogs and pulled one of the biggest upsets in CFP history by feasting on early Michigan turnovers and scoring two defensive touchdowns.
TCU led 41-22 at the end of three quarters, but J.J. McCarthy led the Wolverines on a comeback to pull within three points before TCU closed it out. It came down to a Michigan botched snap on fourth-and-10 in the final minute to send the Horned Frogs improbably to the national championship.