The College Football Playoff field for the 2022 season is official.
In order, Georgia, Michigan, TCU and Ohio State will have a chance to win a national championship.
Ohio State and Michigan both making the Playoff makes it a virtual lock that Penn State will play Utah in the Rose Bowl Jan. 2.
As last week progressed, it started to look increasingly likely that Penn State was going to go to the Rose Bowl regardless of whether Ohio State made the Playoff. After hearing from sources, The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach and Stewart Mandel published an article saying that the Rose Bowl was considering taking Penn State despite Ohio State, then ranked No. 5, being the Big Ten’s highest-ranked team behind Playoff bound Michigan. The reasoning was that Ohio State had been to the Rose Bowl twice since 2018 and Penn State hadn’t gone since 2016, with other factors, such as Ohio State only selling 13,000 of its 20,000 allotted tickets, being weighed. The decision became a nonexistent one late Friday night, when Utah upset No. 4 USC to clear Ohio State’s Playoff path. After that, the only way for Penn State not to make the Rose Bowl would have been for Michigan to stumble against Purdue. If the Boilers upset Michigan, they would have gone to the Rose Bowl as Big Ten champs.
Michigan beat Purdue, and its expected to become official later today that Penn State-Utah will be this season’s Rose Bowl matchup. It would be Penn State’s fifth trip to the Rose Bowl overall— 1922, 1994, 2008, 2016– and the first meeting between the schools.
Georgia and Michigan are 13-0. TCU and Ohio State are both going to the Playoff having lost their most recent game. Ohio State lost 45-23 to Michigan in its regular-season finale Nov. 26, and TCU lost the Big 12 Championship to Kansas State this past Saturday, 31-28, in overtime.
Both semifinal games will be New Year’s Eve. No. 2 Michigan will play No. 3 TCU in the Fiesta Bowl at 4 (EST) and No. 1 Georgia will play No. 4 Ohio State at 8. The National Championship game is Monday, Jan. 9, at 7:30 in LA.
