College Football Playoff: Ranking each field throughout four-team era ahead of expansion in 2024 season

The final College Football Playoff of the four-team era is rapidly approaching. The current format will give way to an expanded 12-team field in 2024, bringing an end to one of the most interesting eras in this sport’s history. If there’s one lesson to be learned from the last decade or so, it’s that not all playoff fields are created equally. 

We’ve seen some absolutely loaded four-team fields pass by through the years. We’ve seen some total duds as well. With this being the final four’s swan song, though, it felt appropriate to look back and rank each College Football Playoff iteration based solely on the overall strength of the featured quartet. 

Important factors like players and coaches involved, overall parity and individual team résumés are considered. Since the 2023-24 CFP field is included, the actual results of each year’s semifinal and national championship games did not influence these rankings, though they might be mentioned for context. 

Without giving too much away, this write is incredibly bullish on this year’s crop of playoff teams. What happened with Florida State is a travesty and sets a dangerous precedent for the sport, but Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama should put on a show. But how does it stack up against four-team pods of playoffs past? Let’s take a look. 

1. 2019-20 

The field: 1. LSU, 2. Ohio State, 3. Clemson, 4. Oklahoma 

LSU stole headlines in 2019 — and rightfully so — with its record-shattering offense led by quarterback Joe Burrow, who won the Heisman Trophy by the largest margin in history. The Tigers offensive line won the Joe Moore Award as the best unit in the country, running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire was a Doak Walker Award semifinalist and wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Justin…

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Author : Will Backus

Publish date : 2023-12-11 17:27:49

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