Bowl season is completely upon us.
The New Year’s Six bowl games kicked off beginning Friday with the Cotton Bowl Classic between No. 7 Ohio State and No. 9 Missouri. The Tigers have 11 wins for the first time since 2014 after beating the Buckeyes 14-3.
READ: No. 6 Georgia claims Orange Bowl victory over No. 5 Florida State
Friday night meant the start for the New Year’s Six, and it continued Saturday with the Peach Bowl and Orange Bowl games.
No. 11 Ole Miss contested No. 10 Penn State in the Peach Bowl, beating the Nittany Lions 38-25, and No. 6 Georgia blew out No. 5 Florida State 63-3 later Saturday afternoon.
Finally, New Year’s Day will present three New Year’s Six bowl games with two being College Football Playoff semifinal games. The Fiesta Bowl will start the day between No. 23 Liberty and No. 8 Oregon, and the CFP matchups are Michigan-Alabama and Washington-Texas.
Here are three questions entering the CFP semifinals.
Can Michigan, Washington maintain their higher seeded positions?
Both the Wolverines and Huskies achieved their highest rankings in the CFP era going into the Playoff.
And now, they’re expected to advance and play one another in the CFP National Championship.
But that won’t be an easy task for either team. Both Michigan, going against 11-1 Alabama, and Washington, which plays Big 12 Conference champion Texas, have their hands full.
Michigan will have to keep up with the Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide, and the Wolverines will have to battle a decorated program for a chance at their first win in the CFP.
READ: Jaxson Dart throws 3 TDs, No. 11 Ole Miss routs No. 10 Penn State 38-25 in Peach Bowl
Perhaps the most intriguing game of the CFP this season will be in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
Washington is making its second trip to the CFP while Texas made its first. Both teams won their conference championships, and the Longhorns enter with one loss coming Week 6 to Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry.
Both Washington and Texas will compete in the Sugar Bowl with stellar quarterback play. Michael Penix Jr. was a Heisman Trophy finalist, finishing runner-up to LSU’s Jayden Daniels, and Quinn Ewers owns a win over CFP rival Alabama and leads the Big 12 Conference with a 70.7% completion.
Penix and Ewers both have taken different paths to get where they are today. Both began in the Big Ten as members of Indiana and Ohio State, respectively, and transferred out for greater opportunity.
It turned into trips to the CFP for Penix and Ewers. Now, both will have a chance at ultimate achievement with a trip to the national championship on the line.
If Washington wins, it’ll compete for its first national title since 1991, and a Texas win would give the Longhorns their first shot at a national championship since 2009.
Can No. 4 Alabama use Saban magic and get past No. 1 Michigan?
The Crimson Tide pulled off the unthinkable and won the SEC Championship following their 27-24 win over No. 6 Georgia, ending the Bulldogs’ 29-game winning streak.
It rewarded Alabama with the No. 4 spot in the CFP over No. 5 Florida State, which became the first Power Five program to go unbeaten as a conference champion and miss the Playoff.
Saban and the Crimson Tide won the CFP National Championship the last time they played in the semifinal at the Rose Bowl.
Saban and Alabama also hold a 3-2 edge over Michigan in their all-time series having won the past two meetings, including a 35-16 win in the Citrus Bowl at the end of the 2019 season.
But Michigan is different this time around. The Wolverines have navigated a season of adversity seeing their head coach suspended for six games during the regular season due to recruiting violations and for the in-person scouting operation which resulted in a suspension from the Big Ten Conference.
The Wolverines enter the Rose Bowl with the No. 1 scoring defense in college football. They’ve held opponents to 9.46 points per game this season; Alabama has scored at least 17 points in every game this year.
READ: No. 9 Missouri prevails 14-3 over No. 7 Ohio State in Cotton Bowl defensive slugfest
Alabama also will enter with Jalen Milroe riding his hot hand. Milroe has thrown 10 touchdowns over the past four games, and he averages 226.5 passing yards per game.
Where the test will remain is in the trenches. Michigan running back Blake Corum leads the NCAA with 24 rushing touchdowns, and Alabama holds the No. 46 rushing offense averaging 172.7 yards per game.
So in Alabama and Michigan’s latest meeting, a trip to the CFP National Championship is on the line. The Crimson Tide last made it in 2021, and Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines are looking to make their first appearance in the title game behind their first CFP win.
Which team makes the biggest statement?
Bowl season can be impacted by plater opt outs and the transfer portal, and this time around that case still stands.
Players such as Marvin Harrison Jr., Caleb Williams and Jared Verse haven’t played in their teams’ bowl games to preserve their health and focus toward the 2024 NFL Draft. Others, such as Ohio State’s Kyle McCord and Texas’ Maalik Murphy, have already transferred out of their previous programs.
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So that leaves teams to turn toward younger players to flex the depth of their rosters. Freshmen who haven’t gotten full games’ worth of playing time or third- and fourth-string players sliding up the depth chart are among the groups that could see increased playing time.
Not only is bowl season about building momentum toward the next season but it’s also about ending the current one on a high note. Teams such as Florida State, Georgia, Ohio State and Oregon all had disappointing ends to their regular seasons — and in the case of the Seminoles, they missed the CFP.
But those teams still had a chance to end their seasons on a high note. In the case of the teams involved in the CFP, they can still add hardware to their mantles, and it all begins Monday in the Rose Bowl at 5 p.m. between Alabama and Michigan.
