Mind of Mike: Thoughts on College Football Playoff field

The Mind of Mike is a scary place. Here are my thoughts on the sixth and final college football playoff rankings for the 2021 season.

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The playoff is set and really the only surprise from the weekend was that Alabama trounced favored Georgia and moved up to the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff ranking. Did anyone see that coming after Bama's struggles with LSU, Arkansas and Auburn, and so many issues at running back and along the offensive line?

A case could be made for Michigan to be No. 1, but that would mean an Alabama-Georgia rematch in the semifinal and my assumption is the committee would do anything to avoid that. If they meet for it all in the finals then great, but this is about matchups and everyone wants to see how No. 2 Michigan matches up against No. 3 Georgia in a great defensive battle.

And with Cincinnati holding up its end of the bargain with an impressive win over Houston, the Bearcats were destined to stay No. 4.

So what did we expect heading into the weekend? Initially I expected chaos, but still believed UGA would beat Alabama. I thought Michigan could lose to Iowa, Cincinnati could lose to Houston and Oklahoma State could lose to Baylor. And these losses could propel Notre Dame, Baylor and possibly even Ohio State into the playoff.

But alas that didn’t happen.

However, had UGA won as expected we would have had a little drama I suppose. Alabama would be out and had Oklahoma State won it would have been a nice debate between a conference champion and Notre Dame for No. 4.

And what would have been really interesting is if Cincinnati fell to Houston and a one-loss Bearcats team slid behind a one-loss Notre Dame team whose loss was to Cincinnati. How do you explain that one? But again, no drama to be had.

Oklahoma State was a big disappointment after it beat Baylor early in the season and Baylor has been a massive surprise this season. The same can be said about Utah and Notre Dame, while we expected Ohio State to be better than it finished. The lack of playoff appearance is a massive disappointment in Columbus.

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Early predictions for the matchups? Alabama curb stomps Cincinnati and wins by 20 or more. I expect the game will be out of hand by halftime. Why? Bryce Young and that offense will be too much to handle. The Bearcats have a solid defense but they’ve never seen anything like what they will see against Nick Saban and company. Just as Georgia learned this past weekend.

And I believe Michigan will beat Georgia (more on the Dawgs below) with its balanced attack and the way it can run the ball. Both teams have a great defense but Michigan has a better offensive line and better run-blocking tight ends. That'll make the difference in a smash-mouth game.

And then Alabama, yet again, wins it all over Jim Harbaugh in two-touchdown fashion and make the Paul Finebaum happy.

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And finally, is UGA vastly overrated? It very well could be. This amazing defense kept the likes of very average teams Clemson, Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky and others at bay but it didn’t have to play Texas A&M, Alabama or Ole Miss in the regular season. It faced its first elite offense against Bama in the SEC title game and got waxed.

So did we see a team that was over-hyped by an early win over the worst Clemson team in a decade and a team that dominated a horrible SEC East division? Or is UGA legit?

We will find out soon.

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