The Most Interesting Stats for Each College Football Playoff Team
And reasons to suggest why all four schools may win.
Year 10 of the CFP era gives us our final four-team playoff. Things will look different in the 2024 season, when the playoff field expands to 12 and conference realignment sends current CFP teams Washington and Texas to the Big Ten and SEC, respectively.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves — there’s still a champion to be crowned this season. Which team will get the job done?
Each remaining title contender has taken a different path to reach this point, and there are different reasons to believe each school has what it takes.
Here are the most interesting stats about this year’s CFP teams.
1. Michigan Wolverines (13–0)
The Wolverines became the fourth team to reach the CFP in at least three consecutive seasons but are in new territory this time around as the field’s top seed.
It’s a good spot to be in — the #1 seed has won the CFP in three of the last four seasons (including Georgia last year) after falling short five straight times to begin the CFP era.
They’re coming off a dominant, 26–0 victory over Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Game and are just the second team ever to record a shutout in an FBS Conference Championship.
The other? 2014 Ohio State, who walloped Wisconsin 59–0 before winning the inaugural CFP and giving the Big Ten its most recent title.
In total, Michigan is 38–3 over the past three seasons following a 2–4 campaign in 2020. The Wolverines’ defense has continued to improve and is allowing an FBS-best 9.5 PPG this season.
That’s the fewest by a Michigan team since they allowed 8.2 PPG in 1997, their last National Championship year. No FBS team has allowed fewer than 10.0 PPG in a season since 2011 Alabama (8.2) — another title team.
If the opponent never scores, you’ll never trail. Michigan has led every game at halftime and trailed for just 23 minutes and 33 seconds this season — all other FBS teams have trailed for more than an hour.
Michigan has turned the ball just seven times this season (tied for the third-fewest in the FBS) but amazingly, four of them came on Sept. 16 against Bowling Green. The Wolverines have only committed two total turnovers in their last 10 games.
And if all else fails, they can just give the ball to Blake Corum. His 24 rush TD this season are the most by an FBS player since Najee Harris’ 26 in 2020 (for yet another title team) and his 55 career TD are tied with Anthony Thomas for the most in school history.
Corum is the only FBS player to rush for a TD in every game this season and has done so in 24 of 25 games played since 2022. The only exception was against Ohio State last season when he left with a knee injury after just two carries.
2. Washington Huskies (13–0)
Looking for reasons to believe Washington will advance to the CFP Championship Game? Look no further than last season, when the Huskies defeated Texas 27–20 in the Alamo Bowl.
Washington is seeking to be the first Pac-12 team to ever win at least 14 games in a season and the first Pac-12 team to win a national title since 2004 USC. They’ve already won 20 straight games — what’s two more?
The Huskies’ resurgence began in 2022 after bringing in Head Coach Kalen DeBoer (from Fresno State) and quarterback Michael Penix Jr (from Indiana). Since then, Washington is a perfect 9–0 vs AP-ranked teams and 4–0 vs teams in the AP Top-10. Of course, three of those wins have come against Oregon.
DeBoer can be the first head coach to win the CFP National Championship within his first two seasons at a school and the first FBS head coach to do so overall since Gene Chizik at Auburn in 2010.
After winning each of their first four games by at least 27 points, Washington has been keeping things tight ever since. They’ve won nine straight games by 10 points or fewer, which is the longest streak in the D-I era (since 1973) by two games.
Washington has also won three straight games by three points or fewer for the second time in school history and the first time since 1960.
Michael Penix Jr. has rewritten the Washington record books during his time in Seattle. He’s just 141 passing yards away from becoming the third QB in school history with 9,000 career passing yards. In two seasons!
With at least 241 passing yards, he’ll have the two highest single-season yardage totals ever at Washington. There are five individual games with at least 450 passing yards in school history. Four belong to Penix.
3. Texas Longhorns (12–1)
Steve Sarkisian gets another chance at revenge on his former school in the CFP Semifinals. Coach Sark’s first HC job came at Washington from 2009–13 and now he becomes the first head coach in CFP history to face a team he was previously the HC for.
He leads the Big 12 champion Texas Longhorns, who have appeared in the National Championship Game in each of their previous two seasons after winning a conference title (2005, 2009).
They enter the CFP on a seven-game win streak since their sole loss against Oklahoma. Amazingly, it’s their longest win streak since a 17-game run from 2008–09 that culminated in a BCS National Championship appearance against Alabama.
Speaking of the Crimson Tide, the Longhorns went into Tuscaloosa and defeated Alabama 34–24 on Sept. 9. It marked the first time Nick Saban had ever lost a home game by double-digits at Alabama.
If a rematch were to occur in the CFP Championship, it would be the second CFP game to ever be a rematch of a game earlier in the year. The other was also an Alabama loss — to Georgia in the Championship Game of the 2021 season.
Along with that game against Alabama, Texas is looking for back-to-back wins in games vs AP Top-5 teams when they play Washington. The last time Texas did that was in 2005. The second game? Their famous Rose Bowl victory against another Pac-12 team in USC.
“But hold on,” says Washington. The Huskies are also looking for back-to-back wins in games vs AP Top-5 teams. They haven’t done so since 1990–91, with the second game coming in the Rose Bowl vs Michigan to win their most recent national title as well.
4. Alabama Crimson Tide (12–1)
Alabama became the lowest-ranked team (#8) in the penultimate CFP poll to make the Playoff, and now they’ll look for a repeat of 2017 when they won the CFP National Championship in their only prior appearance when ranked #4.
Nick Saban’s team has dominated the CFP era and is making its eighth CFP appearance overall. They’ve won six straight semifinal games (SEC teams as a whole have won 10 straight) and will be seeking a seventh title game appearance in the last nine seasons.
Saban already has the most national championships of any head coach at college football’s highest level (seven) but can now be the first to have seven titles at one school (Saban has six at Alabama and one at LSU; Bear Bryant also has six at Alabama).
Since coming to Alabama in 2007, Saban hasn’t gone three years without a National Championship. With his last title coming in 2020, it’s all or nothing this season.
In the SEC Championship Game, they snapped two-time defending national champion Georgia’s 29-game win streak. They are the only team to defeat the Bulldogs over the last three seasons.
Now, against Michigan, the Crimson Tide has an opportunity to do something no team has ever done before — defeat the #1 team in the AP Poll in back-to-back games within a single season.
Under Saban, Alabama is a staggering 8–2 vs AP #1 teams. However, they have never defeated multiple #1 teams in the same season.
The key for Alabama could be avoiding a slow start — this season, they’ve only scored first in six of 13 games and led at halftime in seven of 13 games.
But should they get past Michigan, there’s good news no matter who they face. The Crimson Tide are 5–0 all-time against Washington, allowing just 9.8 points per game. And if it’s Texas, in Bowl game rematches of games played earlier in the season, the winner of the first game has lost seven straight.
