by: Ava Hardaway 

As the college football season comes to an end, playoffs have begun, and the bowl games have been set. From the Potato Bowl to the Citrus Bowl, 84 teams will continue their seasons and play one more game.  

There are 42 total bowl games set for the end of the 2023 season, including the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, which are the College Football Playoff Semifinal games. Four teams will face off to determine the College Football Playoff National Champion.  

On December 3^rd, the college football committee came together to decide on the four teams that will face off in the playoffs. Alabama, Michigan, Texas and Washington were selected as the semifinalists for the playoffs. There was much debate that these four teams should have been the teams in the playoffs.  

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Results of an Instagram poll.

30 people voted.

Photo courtesy: gslionsden on Instagram (give it a follow)

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With undefeated Florida State not being selected in the playoff bracket, many fans, players and coaches were upset with the decision of the committee. High school gym teacher Mr. Nathan Snider and senior Mikey Kingerski have watched much of the college football games leading up to the playoffs and have an opinion on the teams.  

“I don’t agree with the teams that are in the playoffs,” Mr. Snider said. “I believe Florida State should be in, even though I don’t believe they are one of the top four teams in the country. I feel like if you are in a big five conference and you go undefeated you should be in, especially when there are teams in who lost one game and FSU didn’t.” 

Although the Florida State Seminoles did not make the playoffs while having an unbeaten record, they will get the chance to play the Georgia Bulldogs in the Orange Bowl on December 30th. Georgia was another team that had a strong record but wasn’t good enough to be in the postseason. 

Many people have chosen their team to root for in the college football playoffs. As Michigan seems to be the top-runner for the playoff championship winner, other teams have received love, or hate, for their placement in the championship games. 

“My favorite team in the playoffs is Washington,” Kingerski said. “I would have liked to see an ACC team in the playoffs over Alabama, as it is my favorite conference. But it should be a very interesting and cool group of playoff matchups.” 

Other top college teams like Missouri, Ole Miss, Oregon and Penn State didn’t make the playoffs, but did receive a bowl game. 

“Besides the playoff matchups, I plan on watching Florida State vs Georgia and Ole Miss vs Penn State,” Kingerski said. “I would like to see Florida State win to prove the committee wrong. I want to watch the second game because I like Penn State.” 

While others prefer watching the bowl games, some do not. When not placing in the top four spots, teams are not given a chance to play in the playoffs. For the next college football season, the committee has decided to expand the playoffs to a 12-team playoff bracket.  

“I enjoy and will watch the college football playoffs,” Snider said. “I don’t care for the bowl games at all, but I’m really looking forward to next year when they have 12 teams in the playoffs.” 

As the college football season is slowly ending, the NFL season still has a few more weeks left. Fans of football -college or professional- have their preferences regarding what they would rather watch. The NFL gets more love than college football from many fans, but others enjoy watching college students play than professionals. 

“I enjoy both the NFL and College football,” Snider said. “I would say I enjoy the NFL more, mostly because of fantasy football and the Steelers.  It keeps me more invested in every game.  College, I enjoy watching the big rivalry games and conference championship games, but I don’t watch every game like I do the NFL.”