Now that we are almost to the halfway point of the 2022 college football season, we as college football fans have entered the “jumping to conclusions mode”. “Jump to conclusions mode” is when only half of the season has played out and anyone and everyone start to share their opinions on just how bad teams are or what teams are “guaranteed” to win it all. While I do not think that this is usually a good thing to do, it does seem as though this year’s college football playoff picture is really starting to take shape already. So, with that being said here are my predictions for who will make the 2022 college football playoff.
The outside looking in.
Every year there are two teams who were oh so close to making the playoff but instead have to live with the heartbreak of being left out. Simply put, when the final college football playoff rankings come out, the worst two spots to be in are rank 5 and rank 6.
This year, I believe that the team who will be sitting at number 6 after everything is said and done is the Michigan Wolverines. My logic here is pretty simple, I do not think they can beat Ohio State, and because of that they will not have many things including a conference championship, a top 5 win, and an undefeated record. These three things have proven to be incredibly important to the college football playoff selection committee in past years, and without these there is no way Michigan will get in.
The team who will finish the season at number 5 in the country is the Georgia Bulldogs. Now I know in the past I have stated that Georgia clearly looks like the national championship favorites but in light of recent events (Missouri and Kent St.) Georgia is looking more and more beatable every week. The team that I think actually pulls it off, the Tennessee Volunteers. Tennessee is having a great season and while I do not think they can topple the mountain that is the Alabama Crimson Tide, I think that Georgia is the “perfect storm” for them. Even with the loss to Tennessee, I still think Georgia will make the SEC Championship and this is where I think they take their second loss in a very close game to Alabama. The reason I have Georgia at 5 over Michigan is because I think that Georgia’s strength of schedule will prove to the committee that they are still more deserving of the 5th spot than Michigan, and who knows maybe Michigan slips up somewhere other than just Ohio State.
4. Clemson Tigers
I can already hear how many people are calling me crazy for saying that Clemson is going to make the college football playoff after the less than impressive start to their 2022 campaign. However, I tend to believe that Clemson’s toughest challenge is already behind them, so then the only question is what proves that they are better than some other team to put here at 4. Truthfully, nothing proves that Clemson is better, but in my prediction, Georgia has 2 losses and Michigan has at least one loss and cannot have a conference championship this season, which means that Clemson somewhat lucks their way into the playoff. That is not to say that Clemson is a bad team, because they have clearly shown improvements on the offensive side of the ball, specifically out of their QB. While their defense did not have a great performance, they have looked solid in other games this season. I believe that Clemson is in a position where they could even lose 1 game and still make the playoff because they would still have the opportunity to win a conference championship. This would separate them from both Michigan and Georgia and, in my opinion, catapult them to number 4 in the playoff rankings.
3. USC Trojans
Having USC at number 3 in my college football playoff may be way too high for some people. But to those some people, I simply ask, why? What game left on USC’s schedule are they going to lose? Many people think it’s the inevitable Utah game that would come in the conference championship, but I just do not see how Utah is going to stop Caleb Williams and company. Because of this I think that it is most likely that USC will go into the 2022 college football playoff with an undefeated record, whether they come out of it with one remains to be seen.
The obvious ones.
The top 2 teams in my college football playoff are the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Alabama Crimson Tide. And while the order that they go into the playoff between these 2 spots may be different, it honestly matters very little. I say that because I believe that these 2 teams are clear cut the 2 best teams is college football. I understand Alabama struggled with Texas, but after that impressive road win against Arkansas I do not see any team in the SEC being able to keep them out of the conference championship game, or the playoff. While it is popular to pick Tennessee to upset the Crimson Tide, I personally do not believe that Tennessee is quite at that level yet, though they are not far off. Ohio State also looks to be the clear-cut favorite in the Big 10 with the gap in that conference growing wider by the day. Even though a matchup between Alabama may be hard to predict, it is not hard to understand that Ohio State has a significantly easier road to the playoff than the Crimson Tide do. This puts the Buckeyes in prime position to make a national championship run this season and I think at the very least they will be in the national championship game. If a matchup were to happen between these two teams come January 9th, we as fans may be getting one of the most exciting national championship games since the 2017 Alabama vs, Georgia game, and as for who would win, your guess is as good as mine.
