Get Ready for the Playoffs: December’s Must-Watch College Football Matchups!

Well, the conference championship games are over and the College Football Playoff, the first time for 12th team format is set.

And we're here to enjoy college football and tell you all about it here in just a second.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history.

Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

Hello, my football friends.

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal of positive football history.

And welcome to another edition of Talking About Great College Football.

We had a big game every week and we have lots of teams that are still in it for a national championship.

We'll get to more of that in just a moment.

If you're looking here for Mondays for our celebration of the New York Giants 100 celebration, but we don't have a formal podcast and video podcast for you today, but we do have a YouTube shorts video out on one of the great giants of all time and our friend Josie Emba talking about him.

So make sure you check that out on our YouTube channel.

Check out the YouTube shorts section now.

Yeah, this college football season, folks, when do you ever, have you ever watched a college football season where every single week of the season it seemed you had a game that was interesting and intriguing to watch from noon Eastern all the way to, you know, midnight Eastern, and something interesting was happening all day long every single Saturday, Saturday.

I think that was an amazing job that college football did this year.

And it's a combination of a couple things.

First of all, the conference realignment, I think that the portal, the transfer portal played into that a little bit from a few years ago.

But the conference realignment that really took hold this year with some big names changing places.

You have Texas and Oklahoma going into the SEC.

You have the PAC 12 dissolving and being absorbed.

Most of those big teams by the Big Ten and the Big 12 and the mountain Conference is, you know, doing a phenomenal job this year, too.

So all those teams and even independents playing some big games like Notre Dame playing some of the high stakes.

And then you have the two armed services that just had tremendous seasons, Navy and Army, their big games coming up here in the next week.

But they had some great team games during the whole season.

They were just phenomenal to watch.

And, you know, just the television was filled with great ball games to watch.

So who can say anything bad about that?

The race came right down to yet last night when Oregon and Penn State played for the Big Ten championship, same time SMU and Clemson are playing for the the for their conference championship.

And you know, how could you ask for anything better and greater than that?

It's also interesting that the Big Ten was won by Oregon, who was a Pac 12 team last year.

The Big 12 was won by Arizona State, who was a big, a Pac 12 team last year.

There's kind of some crazy things going on.

SMU almost won the ACC and they were not an ACC team last year.

So just all this craziness.

And by the way, you know, Texas taking Georgia right to the end too.

Remember Texas was a Big 12 team last year.

They almost won the SEC.

You could have turned the old style conferences on their head and they almost did because there was a team from a different conference and every single one of the Big five conference championships.

So, you know, that's a pretty amazing thing too.

But we have the playoff brackets coming up, you know, in these 12 team playoffs that took nothing really away from the postseason bowl games because by my count, not counting the playoff format, there are 36 bowl games going on this year in the FCS.

So there is.

That's 72 teams in plus the 12 that are in the playoff.

You have 84 teams in and of 130.

Am I counting that right?

I think I am.

And it stretches from next week, the middle of December all the way to almost the end of January.

We're going to have college football going on right alongside the pros for those two months of just great football.

And they all mean something.

So that's really kind of cool.

So let's get into the college football playoff bracket now.

No matter what happens, people are going to complain and feel snubbed.

And you know, if you could have had 20 teams in, you could add, you know, 80 teams in.

People are going to feel stubbed.

Look what happens with the college basketball tournament every year.

But I think 12 is a very good solid number and I think they're going to make some tweaks after this year because potentially what could have happened, let's say Notre Dame doesn't lose their game to, I believe they lost in North Dakota State.

If they don't lose that game and they go undefeated, they don't get a first round by because they're not in a conference.

So I think maybe that's something, maybe the college football powers that be ought to look at because an undefeated team probably should get a buy if, especially if they play a quality schedule like Notre Dame did this year.

Now I can see why they didn't and I think it's deserving.

The conferences that did give out some things, you know, Oregon winning the, being a Big Ten winner, they get a bye week.

The Georgia Bulldogs beating Texas in the SEC Championship on Saturday, well, they get a by game bye week, so that's, that's understandable.

Arizona State, well, they won the Big 12, they had a few losses.

Now should they get a bye week?

Maybe.

But they did win a conference championship, played that extra game.

And Boise State, who had a tremendous season winning the Mountain west, they got a by game.

Now Clemson maybe has a complaint about that for winning the acc, but the Mountain west, hey, they're, they're proving their salt.

They are doing some, some amazing things there.

So this is the way it's going to start off.

The first round of the playoffs, December 20th and 21st.

So December 20th of Friday we're going to have Indiana at Notre Dame at 8pm on ABC prime time.

Friday Night Football starting off a holiday week just, you can't beat that with Indiana with a great season they've had against a, a very tough Notre Dame game at home for Notre Dame.

I don't know if there's been a game being played in South Bend in December, late December, for decades.

So that's kind of a cool thing to, to see.

And then Saturday we have four, four games on tap here.

The number 11 SMU against at number 6 Penn State in Happy Valley.

A noon game that'll be on TNT in HBO Max.

Then at 4pm Clemson is at number five Texas.

It's another great game there.

And then after, as soon as that game ends, we have an 8pm game, number nine, Tennessee at number nine Ohio State playing from the Horseshoe in Columbus.

Tremendous games going on there.

So The Penn State SMU winner will then play on Tuesday, December 31st on ABC against Boise State in the Fiesta bowl and played in Arizona.

Now we go to neutral field sites.

The Peach bowl will have Arizona State against the Texas Clemson winner.

And that'll also be on.

I'm sorry, that'll be on January 1st, the Peach Bowl, 1:00.

Now the Rose bowl game that's going to feature number one Oregon against the winner of the Ohio State Tennessee game.

So this could be a rematch of Ohio State Oregon in a Rose bowl which looks like a Pac 12 versus Big 10 game of old.

So that can be kind of Cool.

But don't count out Tennessee.

They've had some very strong play from their players, too, so who knows what's going to happen there.

The Sugar bowl will be the evening matchup.

Number two, Georgia will play the winner of Notre Dame, Indiana.

And that'll be a 8:45 start on ABC.

So ABC and ESPN have all four of those games for the playoffs and that quarterfinal round the following week, January 9th and 10th.

The Orange bowl will be Thursday, January 9th, and the Cotton bowl will be Friday, January 10th.

That all sets up for the championship game, which will be held at Mercedes Benz stadium in Atlanta, Georgia on January 20th on Monday night, traditionally where the college football championship has been played.

So that's just some tremendous lineups that are going to be happening here with those 12 teams that made the playoffs.

Congratulations to all them.

Congratulations to college football for finally getting it right and putting something interesting at the end of the season.

And by the way, in these, these 12 teams with these premier players, these players are going to play because these games mean something.

And they're not going to be sitting out bowl games because I'm sure they want championships.

I would be surprised if any of them sit out unless they have a quasi injury or something that may prevent them from going on.

But they're going to play their hearts out because there's something to play for.

And this is the national championship tournament of the ncaa and I think it's a great thing for college football.

What are your thoughts?

Let us know.

Pigskin dispatchmail.com and until next time everybody have a great, great iron day.

That's all the football history we have today, folks.

Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.

We invite you to check out our website, pigskindispatch.com not only to see the daily football history, but to experience positive football with our many articles on the.

Good people of the game as well.

As our own football comic strip cleat marks comics.

Pigskindispatch.com is also on social media outlets, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and don't forget the Pigskin Dispatch YouTube channel to get all of your positive football news and history.

Special thanks to the talents of Mike.

And Jean Monroe as well as Jason Neff for letting us use their music during our podcast.

This podcast is part of Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.

You can learn more@sportshistorynetwork.com.