So you’re saying there’s a chance?
If there’s a chance that we could get some made-for-Hollywood storylines in the first round of the College Football Playoff, we as college football fans need to be doing everything in our power to make that happen. That’s what we’ll try to do today. What does that look like?
Oh, a coach against his former boss? Yep. Wait, you mean we could see a quarterback face his former team? Oh, we could see a revenge game after this team threw shade at that team? You bet. Sign me up.
Here are 7 juicy first-round Playoff matchups that could actually happen … if we just will them into existence (note that I put the currently higher-ranked team as the home team):
Georgia Tech vs. Texas A&M
Let’s start with Haynes King facing his former team. Lost in the shuffle of this 2025 season is the fact that King and Texas A&M are both undefeated heading into November. Somewhere, Jimbo Fisher would be sitting on a pile of money and taking credit for both of those things. It would be a fascinating matchup for that element alone, but also because it’d be a December matchup between a pair of teams that are cut from the same cloth. Toughness wouldn’t be lacking. Physical teams who have resilient quarterbacks would love to see a game like this won in the trenches.
The best question is perhaps whether these teams are too good to prevent this from happening. After all, they represent 40% of the remaining Power Conference unbeatens. They could, however, slide into that 5-12 range if they both come up short of winning conference titles. A&M might be able to lose 2 games and still host a home Playoff game at 10-2 or 11-2, depending on what that looks like. Whatever the case, King returning to the place where he started his career would be a great full-circle moment.
Notre Dame vs. Texas A&M
I promise that not all of these are A&M games, but these 2 teams played in one of the best games of the season. At the time, it felt important when A&M delivered that go-ahead touchdown on the heels of the botched Notre Dame snap on the extra point. It’s still proving to be important for both teams that haven’t lost a game since that night in South Bend. They’ve already had a home-and-home during the Mike Elko era, but another game against his former team would make for great theater. Both CJ Carr and Marcel Reed are playing at a high level, and against a pair of talented, but imperfect defenses, we could watch another wild back-and-forth contest.
Barring a complete collapse, Notre Dame is likely going to be behind A&M in any future Playoff ranking. But if the Aggies lose a regular season game and then fall in the SEC Championship Game, this could certainly be a 7-10 or 8-9 matchup to kick things off, just as Notre Dame did against first-time Playoff participant Indiana last year.
Alabama vs. Indiana
Remember the time that Curt Cignetti fired back at Alabama by claiming that Indiana was “adopting SEC scheduling philosophy?” I remember that, too. It was … sort of weak? And while Cignetti might’ve tried to justify Indiana canceling a home-and-home with Virginia to get to 9 Power Conference games, it didn’t help his case that Alabama was already set to face 2 Power Conference foes in nonconference play to get 10 such opponents in 2025. But whatever. Cignetti was an original Nick Saban assistant at Alabama, and we’d surely get plenty of reminders of that, as well as how at odds these teams were over last year’s Playoff decision.
If both of these teams lose in their respective conference title games and nothing else, they’re likely both looking at top-8 seeds. What would probably need to happen is Alabama loses 1 more regular season game and then it suffers an SEC Championship Game loss. How realistic is that? Eh, maybe not, but as we saw with Alabama late last season, nothing should be assumed.
Ole Miss vs. Alabama
You had me at “Lane Kiffin vs. Alabama.” Need I say more? The amount of great moments this would yield is off the charts. We’d have Kiffin joining Nick Saban on a College GameDay set and they’d reminisce about all of their iconic sideline interactions from 2014-16. Shoot, maybe we’d even get Kiffin throwing out a “get your popcorn ready” just for old time’s sake. Knowing Kiffin, he’d probably say that about the Alabama offense in a not-so-subtle attempt to give a little rat poison for the Tide. Ah, the pageantry would be fantastic.
It’s been somewhat overlooked that these 2 teams haven’t faced each other since the conference expanded. No longer divisional foes, a throwback Ole Miss-Alabama game would move the needle in a major way. It would probably take Ole Miss losing another regular-season game and Alabama losing in the SEC title game. Whatever it takes, nothing would get the juices flowing like Kiffin in his old stomping grounds.
Miami (FL) vs. Georgia
Carson Beck against Georgia? Sign me up. Having Beck return to Athens would be the ultimate revenge game. Depending on whose side of the story you believe, you could argue who this is actually a revenge game for. I don’t care who it’d be a revenge game for, but I do care that Georgia fans would make that a 1-of-1 atmosphere. Knowing Kirby Smart, he’d say everything right publicly, but internally, he’d have his team convinced that Beck literally spat in the face of every individual member of that Georgia locker room. Of course, that didn’t happen. Beck just chose to leave Georgia for a new chapter at Miami, where he’s had a mostly good bounce-back season.
You’d have the obvious Beck storyline, but it’d be Miami’s first Playoff berth … in a building where the home team has 1 loss in the 2020s. No big deal, right? Surely Mario Cristobal could beat a top-8 team in a true road game for the first time in his career, right? Well, it’d be entertaining to find out.
Oregon vs. Georgia
Dan Lanning making a cross-country return to Athens would be worth the price of admission. Lanning already faced his former team, but that was in his Oregon debut back in 2022. Much has changed since that game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Ducks are one of the steadiest programs in America having immediately established themselves as an annual Big Ten contender. Watching these teams face off on a Playoff stage feels like something that we’ll see happen at some point, but we need these Big Ten-SEC battles on campuses because of how rare they’ve become.
Smart would have the chance to remain unbeaten against his former assistants while Lanning would have an opportunity to pick up what would be arguably his most impressive victory to date. Another regular-season loss for both programs and getting an 8-9 matchup for a pair of 10-2 squads is probably the only way this happens, but it’d be a treat if it did.
Oregon vs. Ohio State
Do I want a 3rd matchup between these teams? Absolutely. This game was phenomenal in the first matchup in Eugene and … not so much in the second one. That’s fine. These are extremely different teams. It’d still be 2 extremely talented teams facing off after not meeting in the regular season. Well, that’s assuming they won’t find a way to face off in the Big Ten Championship Game, which would negate this possibility altogether.
Dante Moore vs. Julian Sayin would be an exceptional quarterback matchup, but the Will Stein-Matt Patricia chess match would be the real draw. Two of the best minds on their respective sides of the ball would be a strength-on-strength matchup that would feel like a semifinal game. And of course, the winner of Part III would have a whole lot of bragging rights as the premier Big Ten program in the latter half of the 2020s.
And the one that probably won’t happen because they’re both 2-loss teams with a month left, but it would be the juiciest Playoff matchup ever … USC vs. Oklahoma
I need a Lincoln Riley return to Norman like I need air in my lungs. I know I’m not alone. Oklahoma fans might hate Riley more than Texas. This would be the ultimate revenge matchup for OU after Riley left for USC. The College GameDay signs would be at an all-time level. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that both of these teams would have to win out to make this happen. For Oklahoma, that would mean winning road games at Tennessee and at Alabama, as well as taking care of Mizzou and LSU at home. Losing any one of those games likely means OU isn’t getting into the Playoff, much less hosting a home Playoff game.
But at the very least, the path is there because of how much credit OU would get for running the table with a schedule against teams that are a combined 24-8. This would be the No. 1 chaos scenario for November. We’d all have to take back any negative things we’ve said about the selection committee if it actually makes this happen.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
