The 2024 college football national championship was the last of its kind. In 2014, the NCAA implemented a four-team single-elimination playoff that would decide the national champion. The Michigan Wolverines ended this 10-year experiment with a bang by blowing out the Washington Huskies in the championship.
The four-team format was fairly successful but had some minor criticisms, so they decided to change it. The playoff format will be changing from a four-team playoff to a 12-team playoff so that more schools can get opportunities and make more money. Additionally, the PAC-12, one of the Power 5 conferences is getting disbanded and many programs are moving to either the Big Ten or the SEC. College football will be changed beyond recognition but will still provide an entertaining product.
For this year’s championship, Michigan was dominant from start to finish and finished the year with 15 wins and zero losses. They won the championship in blowout fashion 34-13. The Wolverines relied heavily on the run game, which made up for over two-thirds of their total yards and 28 of their 34 points. The star running back duo of Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards could not be stopped by the Huskies’ defense. On the other side of the ball, Michigan’s defense stifled Washington’s high-powered offense, holding them to only 13 points and forcing two turnovers in crucial moments. The saying “defense wins championships” was displayed in full force during the game.
Their opponents, Washington, had a pretty good year themselves. Their head coach, Kalen DeBoer, has had much success in his coaching career and started his college coaching career for the University of Sioux Falls. He has been to a few other places but has had his most success with the Huskies. They finished with 14 wins and one loss, that one loss being in the championship, and had their way with the PAC-12. While it was a disappointing end to the season and the team will be losing many key pieces to the NFL draft, Washington fans got to enjoy the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
Michigan fans have waited almost 30 years for a Championship and they got it in style. Well deserved for the team and especially for the fans.
