Brian’s College Football Top 5: Championship Week

Photo from Gary Cosby Jr of USA Today Sports

Well, folks.

We’ve reached the final top 5 of the college football season.

College football is by far my favorite sport, and this season seemed to go by faster than any other season has before.

So, without further adieu, here is the final top 5 of the 2021 college football season.

5. Pitt Panthers

Alright, fine.

I avoided it all year.

I can avoid it no longer.

What a season from Kenny Pickett and the Pitt Panthers.

11-2, ACC champions, and shutting down Wake Forest’s dominant offense.

They deserve their success.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go throw up.

4. Baylor Bears

Boy. Starting the list back to back with Pitt and Baylor.

My favorites…

Regardless, this is a deserving spot for Baylor as well, as they completely shut down Oklahoma State’s offense, including two goal line stops. One of them with the game on the line.

Why are they not higher? Because Oklahoma State’s offense is horrible.

Still impressive, though!

3. Michigan Wolverines

I remember reading on the CFB subreddit earlier this year that Michigan fans are just numb to the pain of Jim Harbaugh.

It’s not “if” it’ll go wrong. It’s “when.”

And after a dominating win, finally, over Ohio State, it felt like fate that Michigan would come out flat and blow it against Iowa.

After all, that’s what Harbaugh has done his entire time at Michigan.

But not this time.

Michigan ran all over a very good Iowa defense to win 42-3 and clinched a spot in the playoff.

Next up is Georgia, which does not look like the worst match up for them…

2. Alabama Crimson Tide

All year long I said there was no reason to have a playoff.

Georgia was the best team, and that simply was the end of it.

However, looking at their schedule, they beat four teams (Clemson, Arkansas, Auburn and Kentucky) who were good teams but far from great teams.

Alabama was the first great team they faced.

And Alabama blew them out of the water.

For the first time all season, Georgia got punched right in the mouth and they did not like it.

And Alabama never let up.

You can be sick of their success all you want. I won’t blame you if you are.

But you can’t ignore how special Alabama football is.

In my book, they went from one loss away from missing the playoffs to being the playoff favorite.

As for Georgia, Michigan has an offensive line and a run game that will punch them in the mouth again.

Now, they have a taste for it. Let’s see how they respond.

1. Cincinnati Bearcats

It finally happened.

A G5 school has finally made the college football playoff.

Don’t give the committee any credit, though. They had no choice but to put them in.

Everyone behind them had two losses, except for Notre Dame who only had one.

The small problem is their one loss was at home to Cincinnati.

Still, we can give all the credit to the Bearcats, who had that dominant win over Notre Dame and had an equally dominant win against an 11-1 Houston team on Saturday.

They might get blown out by Alabama on New Year’s Eve.

Considering what Bama just did to Georgia, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if it happened.

But they have finally made the playoff, and don’t you dare for one second think it wasn’t deserved.