This year’s Good Year Cotton Bowl in Arlington Texas will serve as one of two semifinal games to determine the final two teams to play in this year’s College Football Championship game. The surprising upstart number four ranked Cincinnati Bearcats will face off against the team that is no stranger to these games or the Championship game for that matter, the number one rated Alabama Crimson Tide.
Bama enters this game coming off a 12 and 1 season. This year’s entry into the College Football Playoffs will mark their seventh overall appearance in the just eight years that the current playoff system has been in place.
Prior to this year’s playoffs, Alabama won last year’s title with a blowout win over the Ohio State Buckeyes, 52-24. Prior to last season’s championship, the Tide had taken losses in championship games following the 2016 and 2018 seasons. Before those two seasons, Bama took the title following both the 2015 and 2017 seasons.
The number four ranked Bearcats enter the game undefeated but as the first non-Power 5 conference team to ever make it to the final four under the current College Football Playoff format. Despite the scrappiness that Cinci has shown this season and despite having one of the best defenses in the nation this season it seems as if Vegas has little faith in the Bearcats, having set them as a nearly two-touchdown underdog for this contest.
Alabama has previously played in six CFP semifinal games winning all but one. Their only loss came in the first year of the current CFP following the 2014 season. That loss came at the hands of Ohio State by a 42 to 35 score.
The winner of this afternoon’s game will play the winner of the Orange Bowl that takes place later this evening. The winners of both games will meet in the title game in Indianapolis on Monday, January 10th.
– 2021 Good Year Cotton Bowl –
Cincinnati Bearcats (4) 13-0, 1st AAC Vs. Alabama Crimson Tide (1) 12-1, 1st SEC West
- When: Friday, December 31st, 2021, 3:30 PM EST
- Where: AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas
- TV: ESPN
- Odds: Alabama Crimson Tide -13.5
- Over/Under: 57.5