The last time an SEC school didn’t make the College Football Playoff national championship game was the first time the CFP was held. Ohio State won that year. The Buckeyes beat Oregon.
But then you probably don’t need a reminder about the SEC’s dominance. The conference reminds us plenty. So do the results.
Since that first year — 2014 — the SEC won six titles. Yet wait, it gets worse: Entering this season, SEC schools have won 13 of the last 17 national titles.
Which makes Monday’s game between Michigan football and Washington a nice bookend to the end of the CFP as we know it. Next year, eight more teams join the CFP. Maybe that gives an upstart like Liberty the chance to … ah, who are we kidding?
It’s about talent. Elite talent, and lots of it. In fact, of the nine teams that have won the national championship since the beginning of the CFP in 2014, none were outside the top 10 in accumulative recruiting rankings.
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Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh watches warm up during open practice at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024.
And most years, the champion was among the top two teams in recruiting. The last three winners — Georgia, twice, and Alabama — shared the top two spots in 247Sports Composite recruiting rankings the last three seasons.
The Crimson Tide held the top spot this season and had 18 five-star and 56 four-star recruits on its roster. Consider Michigan’s ranking this season: 14th. Then consider this gap: the Wolverines have just three players on their roster that were five-star prospects coming out of high school: J.J. McCarthy, Donovan Edwards and Will Johnson.
Which means Alabama had five times as many. And you wonder why so many figured the Crimson Tide would win…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/michigan-football-washington-show-path-110802412.html
Author : Detroit Free Press
Publish date : 2024-01-07 11:08:02
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