Alabama to play Michigan in the Rose Bowl

After an absolutely wild season featuring Alabama losing to Texas, benching the QB, putting him back in, then going on an 11-game tear of beating the presumed Heisman winner, beating 4 top teams, taking down the two time defending national champions, and just generally looking like the scariest team in college football, the playoff committee ranked Alabama at #4.

Most of Saturday night and into Sunday morning we saw a conglomeration of people from nearly every fanbase (Washington and Michigan fans seemed most vocal, for some reason) coming up with every argument they could think of to say that Florida State should be in the playoffs. And if that doesn’t tell you everything you needed to know....

In any case, the Committee actually did what they always said they were about and went against the chalk to pick the actual best teams. And boy has it made some folks mad.

Alabama will be playing the #1 overall Michigan Wolverines in the Rose Bowl for the first round of the playoffs on New Year’s Day. The Wolverines are undefeated after beating Ohio State and Penn State in the regular season and sleepwalking through an offensively challenged Iowa in the Big Ten Championship.

The Wolverines were similarly undefeated last year before getting beat in the playoffs by TCU, and they made the playoffs in 2021 and got stomped by Georgia. But hey, look at each season in a vacuum, right?

In any case, the Wolverines have opened as a 2 point favorite over Alabama according to the DraftKings sportsbook. I wouldn’t be surprised if this line starts moving as money comes pouring in.

This one will be considered pretty much a toss up, and there will be plenty of analysis to come over the next month. If the Tide can pull off the win, they’ll get to face the winner of Texas and Washington (hint: it’s gonna be Texas) for the National Championship.

Roll Tide, everyone!

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.