COLLEGE FOOTBALL FRENZY: Final four seems set after Alabama, Cincy win

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Remember that historic defence that everyone was talking about?

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It got picked apart on NCAA football’s Championship Saturday.

So instead of the No. 1-ranked Georgia Bulldogs winning the coveted SEC crown and finishing with a perfect season, it’s the No. 3 Alabama Crimson Tide taking the conference title after tearing apart their rivals with a 41-24 decision in Atlanta.

And with it will come a college football final four with two SEC squads.

“(The win) means everything,” Alabama quarterback Bryce Young told CBS post-game. “For us, we have a tremendous amount of respect of other teams from the past. We’ve witnessed it — it’s a lot (in Alabama history). But for us, we’ve got to blaze our own path. I’m super happy for this team.”

Saturday’s SEC title tilt was billed as Georgia’s chance to flex its defensive muscle against nemesis Alabama, which came in as underdogs for the first time since 2015 — a string of 92 games.

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But that didn’t happen … at all.

Alabama ripped off 536 yards and put up 24 second-quarter points in the roll of a previously unbeaten Bulldogs pack to capture its 10th SEC championship game triumph in 11 appearances under head coach Nick Saban.

“We did play great on offence,” Saban told CBS. “Obviously, Bryce played a magnificent game, and our receivers did a good job, and our offensive line did a really good job of blocking pressures. It was just a great team win.”

The effort puts ‘Bama — now 17-1 under Saban in Atlanta — into the College Football Playoff for the seventh time in its eight-year existence.

The Bulldogs will join the Crimson Tide in the final four.

As will the No. 4 Cincinnati Bearcats, the only FBS squad to run perfect through the season so far.

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“We’ve done everything we’ve been asked to do,” Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell told ESPN post-game. “We weren’t about that. We wanted to win a (conference) championship, and I kept telling the (players), ‘You take care of the stuff on the field, and everything else will take care of itself. This is a really good football team who deserves everything.”

The No. 2 Michigan Wolverines should wrap up the other final-four spot with a win late Saturday against the No. 13 Iowa Hawkeyes.

If Michigan wins, the top four will have held serve during the Championship Weekend, although it’ll be in a different order once the CFP Selection Committee gets together and announces Sunday (noon ET) its picks for the semifinals on New Year’s Eve.

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It should be rolled out as: 1. Alabama; 2. Michigan; 3. Alabama; 4. Cincinnati.

SECOND & LONG

Cincy capped its perfect season with a 35-20 boot of No. 21 Houston (11-2), breaking free from a tight game with three touchdowns in the third quarter. Running back Jerome Ford had 187 yards and a pair of TDs, including a timely 79-yarder in the first quarter. “I don’t know what to say,” Fickell told ESPN. “Coming out of the halftime, those seniors did an unbelievable job. Those guys took over and said, ‘This is on us.’ And they came out and proved it. When things start rolling — when the defence starts playing, and the offence is playing — it’s complementary football, and we’re really tough to stop.” Cincy’s second-straight American Athletic Conference title take, coupled with the unbeaten campaign, should be more than enough to slot them into the final four even though the CFP Selection Committee has long gone out of its way to keep a Group of Five team from the playoff … Michigan (11-1) went in to Saturday evening’s title game against Iowa (10-2) searching for its first Big Ten crown in 17 years. A win makes Big Blue a CFP semifinalist … Oklahoma State (11-2) came up inches shy of a possible final-four berth on a fourth-and-one late to decide the ballgame. It lost 21-16 at Jerry’s World to Baylor (11-2), which captures its third Big 12 championship, on a play that saw a race to pylon end in disaster for OK State. Baylor safety Jairon McVey tracked down Dezmond Jackson on the OK State running back’s sprint to his left to make the endzone, keeping Jackson from getting enough air to touch the cone and score a TD. Fittingly, the defence — which intercepted OK State QB Spencer Sanders four times in the tilt — won the title for Baylor in a battle of two mighty defensive units. “I’m blessed to be a part of all this,” Baylor head coach Dave Aranda told ESPN post-game. “Just knowing all those (defensive guys) and the pride they have and their craft and knowing the growth they’ve made and to see that effort and that fight is just definitive of what’s been happening.” It’s Baylor’s third Big 12 championship … The other late Saturday game saw No. 15 Pittsburgh (10-2) take on No. 16 Wake Forest (10-2) in what lined up as a high-scoring affair to decide the ACC championship.

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THIRD & GOAL

Billy Napier is moving on to Florida but not before capping his head coaching tenure with a Sun Belt victory after guiding No. 24 Louisiana (12-1) over visiting Appalachian State (10-2) in Lafayette. The 24-16 triumph saw the host side rack up nearly 400 yards of offence in winning its fourth Sun Belt belt and second in a row. “Hats off to App State. That was a championship football game between two great teams,” Napier told reporters post-game. “I’m proud of what we did (on the field), but I’m more proud of how we did it.” … The MAC champ is Northern Illinois (9-4) after a 41-23 smash of Kent State (7-6) in Detroit. Kent State was searching its first conference championship since 1972, while Northern Illinois — which rocked the game with 266 rushing yards — was simply trying to rebound from going winless in sig games last year. “This is historic,” NIU head coach Thomas Hammock told reporters. “I don’t think any team has gone winless the year before and won a championship. When everybody said we would finish last, all I told our team was we are the best team in the MAC until proven otherwise. Obviously, they didn’t prove us otherwise.” It’s NIU’s sixth MAC title in 11 years … Utah State (10-3) took the air out of No. 19 San Diego State (11-2) by going to the air for 318 yards in a 46-13 take of the Mountain West belt. Utah State had 44 transfers help transform a one-win team from last year into a winner under new head coach Blake Anderson. “We all bought into what Coach A was preaching in the off-season,” Utah State receiver Brandon Bowling told FOX post-game. “We had a bunch of guys that were here before us that bought into us and believed in us. I’m so happy to be part of this team. I’m so proud of them.” It’s a first Mountain West honour for Utah State.

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FOURTH & INCHES

No. 17 Utah (10-3) earned its first invite to the Rose Bowl by once again obliterating No. 10 Oregon (10-3) in the Pac-12 Championship Game on Friday night. It wasn’t even close, as Utah scored a 38-10 no-doubter after jumping out to a 23-0 halftime lead in Las Vegas. “This is the culmination of a lot of years of hard work and effort — not only by us but everyone involved,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham told reporters. “It takes a lot of people to make this thing go.” Utah used the tragic death of two players — running back Ty Jordan, who was accidentally killed by a self-inflicted gunshot on Christmas Day, and cornerback Aaron Lowe, who was shot and killed at a house party in September — to inspire a late-season surge that has the program on a six-game win streak to finish 8-1 in conference action. “Our mantra after the tragedy was, ‘We’re not going to get over it but we’ll get through it,’” continued Whittingham. “I believe our guys really did that, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.” … UTSA (12-1) bounced back Friday a week after having its perfect record popped to win the Conference USA championship by topping Western Kentucky (8-5) at home 49-41. The host side jumped out to a 42-13 lead and then held on to win at the Alamodome despite 204 rushing yards by Western Kentucky junior running back Sincere McCormick. UTSA QB Bailey Zappe went 36-of-59 for 577 yards and four TDs to set a single-season school mark with a whopping 5,545 yards passing. It’s the San Antonio school’s first football conference title. “My fellas never disappoint,” UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor told reporters post-game. “They didn’t disappoint tonight. We’re the champs. It’s freaking awesome.” … Prized QB prospect Quinn Ewers is leaving Ohio State via the transfer portal with C.J. Stroud looking like a stud for the school in the coming year or two. The move only makes the NCAA better since Ewers will drive another program’s stock up in value … Are we the only ones who are reminded of Joe Rockhead in The Flintstones when we hear the name Joe Moorhead? Probably. But Rockhead, er, Moorhead is leaving his post as Oregon’s offensive coordinator to become head coach of Akron. He’s in for Tom Arth, who went 2-10 this year as part of an ugly 3-24 tenure.

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