The final year of the four-team College Football Playoff has presented the sport with its most challenging rankings exercise in its decade-long existence. The debate of “best” against “most deserving” is in full swing, as well as the value of a head-to-head result when it comes to stacking teams up against each other. And with all of this drama coming in the 11th hour of the four-team format, it’s fair to say we are putting an emphatic end to an era of college football. But another sign of a new era, or at least the end of an old one, can be found in the new AP Top 25 poll when the rankings update on Sunday afternoon.
That’s because we’ll have a new No. 1 following Georgia’s 27-24 loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. We’re projecting that new No. 1 will be Michigan, and it will mark the first time since November 2015 that the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 poll is not Georgia, Alabama, Clemson or LSU. In other words, for most of the CFP’s existence, the claim to being the “best team in the land” has only been held by four teams. Now, as the four-team format is coming to a close, we have some new blood in the top spot.
Of course, it comes with the caveat of Michigan being more blue blood than new blood when it comes to college football’s history, and the fact that the Wolverines are three-time Big Ten champions set to make their third straight College Football Playoff appearance. But Alabama bouncing Georgia from the top spot (and possibly the playoff) opens the door to a world of new possibilities as the sport prepares to enter a new world with many more possibilities in the form a 12-team playoff. So, as we all anxiously wait for the final word from the CFP Selection Committee, here’s how we think the AP voters will handle the Week 14 results:
