Yahoo! predicts how the College Football Playoff will play out
With bowl season beginning Saturday, Yahoo! Sports’ Pat Forde recently offered his predictions for every postseason game.
Most important among them are the College Football Playoff matchups, which pit No. 1 Alabama against No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 2 Clemson against No. 3 Notre Dame. Both the top seeds are double-digit favorites, and as you can see in Forde’s semifinal picks below, he aligns with that train of thought.
- Cotton Bowl: Clemson 34, Notre Dame 21
- Orange Bowl: Alabama 60, Oklahoma 35
That’s right: 60 points for Alabama. Forde wonders what will stop the Crimson Tide from scoring every possession considering Oklahoma has given up huge point totals to far lesser opponents this season.
When it comes to the Cotton Bowl, Forde pointed to the large disparity in average margin of victory that heavily favors the Tigers. He also believes the Irish haven’t faced a defense quite like Clemson’s this season, though he’s curious to see if Tigers true freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence can continue playing above his years in the spotlight.
Those two results set up a national championship rubber match between Alabama and Clemson, which split titles in the 2016 and 2017 national championship games before meeting in a CFP semifinal last season. Forde says “they’ve been the two best teams all season,” leading to another classic that he sees the Crimson Tide winning 38-34.
Though the CFP games are the headliners, it’s worth checking out Forde’s full post for his predictions for every other bowl game.