Pretty neat article over on The Athletic (linked for those that subscribe - if you don't they are running 90 day free trials for obvious reasons) discussing "The Ultimate College Football Playoff." They took 32 teams (including some that didn't make the playoffs like 2015 Ohio State, 2014 TCU) from when then playoffs started and created a bracket out of it. Most had the 2019 LSU team winning it all (recency bias) but the simulation absolutely got it right. The only thing it didn't get right was not having 2014 Ohio State vs 2019 Ohio State in the championship.
WhatIfSports simulation
Final Four: 2019 LSU, 2014 Ohio State, 2017 Georgia, 2019 Ohio State
Champion: 2019 Ohio StateThe 2019 LSU offense was unsurprisingly dominant, averaging 51 points per game en route to the championship game. Two teams on the left side of the bracket did make surprising runs to the Elite Eight: 2014 Florida State and 2018 Notre Dame. Still, LSU kept rolling and looked like the inevitable champ after defeating 2014 Ohio State in their Final Four showdown. The right side of the bracket experienced much more chaos, starting with 2016 USC shocking 2016 Clemson in the first round. In the Elite Eight, 2017 Georgia upset 2018 Clemson, and 2019 Ohio State got its revenge by beating 2019 Clemson.
The simulation resulted in 2019 LSU vs. 2019 Ohio State in the finals, a matchup we badly wanted to see in real life. And the 2019 Buckeyes ended up winning it all with a 39-36 victory on a Dobbins rushing touchdown with 16 seconds left.
Who has been the best team since 2014?
