Our dream bowl matchups

NCAA football postseason: the stuff dreams are made of. What would this season’s bowl matchups look like if a football fan’s wildest dreams were to come true? Here’s how we broke down the Playoffs and remaining New Year’s Six bowls based on the current CFP rankings.

College Football Playoff Semifinal - Cotton Bowl 

Unless you’re a Bama fan, the real dream might be to see the Tide left out of the Playoff bracket altogether. (We’re all ready for some fresh meat at the top.) But since the chances of Alabama dropping out of the top four are slim to none, we’ll settle for a best-case-scenario opponent. That boils down to a fun coaching matchup: Saban vs. Harbaugh. One is the humorless greatest college coach of all time (earmuffs, Bear Bryant); the other is an effusive and stubborn leader with a legacy that’s still TBD — an unquestioned defensive genius against an offensive mind who’s shown a great deal of improvement and creativity this season. This matchup would go a long way toward answering the ever-looming question of what Harbaugh is really made of and how he’ll be remembered.

College Football Playoff Semifinal - Orange Bowl 

You could make the case that Clemson’s 2018 resume isn’t particularly impressive. Yes, the Tigers handily defeated their only two ranked opponents on the season (41-7 throttling of NC State and 27-7 final against Boston College). But let’s face it: Every game on the schedule this season has been a “should win.” So why not pit Dabo Swinney’s team against another squad oft maligned for strength of schedule: UCF. Even in the American Athletic Conference— which, top to bottom, is the strongest Group of Five league — going undefeated is no easy feat. And it sure would be fun to see Knights QB McKenzie Milton go up against that crushing Clemson D and put the nation’s longest active winning streak to the test.

College Football Playoff National Championship 

Thankfully, the days of the “mythical” national title in college football are behind us. Last season, however, an awkward shadow was cast over Alabama’s title and 13-1 finish — that of the sport’s lone undefeated squad: UCF. So in our dream scenario, we make up for last year: a head-to-head battle between an undisputed dynasty and a relatively unproven group whose unblemished record just can’t be ignored. Let there be no mistaking who the real national champion is. That, and we’ve seen Clemson and Alabama clash.

Fiesta Bowl 

If any Notre Dame fans are still reading this after the definite slight of being left out of the Playoff, bear with us. In dream bowl land, you get to go up against Texas! OK, the Longhorns are 7-3 to your 10-0…but the cache of seeing two of the true college football blue bloods go head-to-head is too good to resist. The sport as a whole just isn’t as good when these teams aren’t good. There’s no special rivalry here (only 11 prior meetings dating back to 1913), but two years ago when Notre Dame finished a mile out of the Playoff conversation at 4-8, the Longhorns beat the then-10^th-ranked Irish on opening weekend. This edition would be a nice little revenge match now that both programs appear to be back on the rise.

Rose Bowl 

In college ball, give us gaudy offense all day long. This season, no one is airing it out more than Washington State’s Gardner Minshew, a previously unheralded player who leads the nation with 385.2 passing yards per game. Not too far behind is Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins, with 328.0 yards per game. How fun would it be to see these two sling it in a Rose Bowl shootout? Add in the narrative of two longtime and somewhat controversial coaches going head-to-head, and you’ve got postseason gold.

Sugar Bowl 

After coming this close to a national title last year, finishing outside the Playoff bracket is a disappointment for Georgia. But fans would be the winners if the Bulldogs were to face off against West Virginia in the Sugar Bowl. Most of the players are probably too young to remember the BCS-era classic that was the 2006 Sugar Bowl — a thrilling three-point win for the Mountaineers over the Bulldogs — but suffice it to say, we’re ready for a rematch. Now that both these teams are back at the top of their respective conferences, the timing couldn’t be better.

Peach Bowl 

Gotta give some at-large love to the Cinderella squad of the season: Syracuse. The Orange haven’t even been to a bowl game since 2013, and their last top-tier bowl appearance was the Orange Bowl in 1999. Fast-forward to present time where ‘Cuse sits just behind Clemson in the ACC Atlantic standings. Pit the Orange against Oklahoma, and the storylines abound. Can a traditional basketball school beat a blue blood on the gridiron? Can Kyler Murray put up a performance worthy of overtaking Tua Tagovailoa in the Heisman race? We're certainly tuning in to find out.