2023 marks the final year of the four-team College Football Playoff and while hindsight shows that the national champion of each year was ultimately deserving, there are still a few teams that seem like they were robbed of a chance to at least prove themselves on a bigger stage.
This may not be as big of a problem in future years with the College Football Playoff expanding to a dozen teams.
So we’re taking a look back at a handful of teams that may have gotten the short end of the stick in 10-year run of the four-team College Football Playoff:
2014 TCU Horned Frogs: 11-1, No. 3 final ranking
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The first-ever College Football Playoff saw the TCU Horned Frogs obliterate nearly all of their opposition with the lone setback coming in the form of a 61-58 shootout loss to Baylor. At the end of the regular season, TCU were ranked No. 3 in the nation. But at the time, the Big 12 Conference did not have a championship game, so they did not have the benefit of a 13th game and rematch against Baylor to avenge the loss.
With no extra game, TCU were dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 in the College Football Playoff rankings while Ohio State stepped into their place en route to winning the national title.
TCU would make quick and easy work of Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl to finish ranked No. 3 in the nation.
2016 Penn State Nittany Lions: 11-2, No. 7 final ranking
The early 2010s were perhaps the most miserable period of being a Penn State football field in the storied program’s history. But after five straight seasons with nine wins or less, James Franklin finally completed the program’s turnaround in 2016.
After a 2-2 start, the Nittany Lions blew away their opposition – including taking down then-No. 2 Ohio State in a hard-fought 24-21 win – en route to a 10-2 regular season finish and a Big Ten Championship win over Wisconsin to go 11-2.
But that was the year where the College Football Playoff Selection Committee made it abundantly clear that a two-loss team would never get priority over a one-loss team. As a result, despite Penn State having beaten them, Ohio State got the spot in the College Football Playoff and went on to be trounced by eventual national champion Clemson.
Penn State could not finish the season on a high note as they lost to USC in the Rose Bowl.
2017 UCF Knights: 12-0, No. 6 final ranking
Arguably the best Group of Five team of the past decade, the 2017 UCF Knights proved what everyone pretty much already knew: There’s a double standard when comparing the resume of a Group of Five school to their Power Five counterparts.
Under the leadership of Scott Frost, UCF scored at least 31 points in every game, won the AAC title but were ranked nowhere close to the top four that year.
However, UFC’s stunning 34-27 win over Auburn in the Peach Bowl left them as the sole undefeated team in FBS that year and they wound up receiving a few national title votes and even held their own national championship parade.
To date, only one Group of Five team (2021 Cincinnati) have made the College Football Playoff.
2018 Ohio State Buckeyes: 12-1, No. 3 final ranking
You can argue that 2018 was the year that Ohio State truly became a pass-first team and a Heisman finalist season from the late-great Dwayne Haskins was the reason for it.
Haskins shredded defenses and the Ohio State record book with 4,831 passing yards and 50 touchdowns that year, but a loss to Purdue followed by narrow wins over Nebraska and Maryland resulted in the high-octane Buckeyes being left out of the College Football Playoff in favor of fellow 12-1 conference champion Oklahoma.
The Buckeyes went on to beat Washington in the Rose Bowl in what would also be Urban Meyer’s final year at Ohio State.
2023 Georgia Bulldogs: 12-1, final ranking TBD
The 2023 Georgia Bulldogs were two-time defending national champions and had dispatched nearly all of their opponents with ease. But after a narrow loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, the Bulldogs went from No. 1 to out of the College Football Playoff top four altogether and were dropped to No. 6.
The Bulldogs clearly took that personally.
The response from the Bulldogs was an Orange Bowl beatdown of undefeated Florida State (another team that could have made this list) of historic proportions.
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Of all the snubs on this list, few will likely go down as more egregious than the 2023 Georgia Bulldogs.
Hopefully that won’t be a problem in the future.