Tonight’s national championship game is set to break a streak that has lasted for over five years in the realm of college football. For nearly 1,000 days, the national championship contest had been closely associated with the Georgia Bulldogs. However, due to their contentious exclusion from this season’s College Football Playoff, the Bulldogs found themselves sidelined, putting an end to their dominant run spanning more than two seasons.
Since the 2017 season, every national championship game featured at least one team that had to confront the Georgia Bulldogs en route to the title match. However, with the Michigan Wolverines triumphing over the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Washington Huskies securing a victory against Texas, the national championship will signal the conclusion of this trend for the Georgia Bulldogs.
The showdown between Michigan and Washington also ensures that this will only be the sixth instance since the 2010 season where the national champion did not cross paths with the Georgia Bulldogs during their journey to the title. Despite not facing either team in this year’s title game, a hypothetical spread suggests that Georgia would have been favored over both Michigan and Washington on a neutral field.