Kirk Herbstreit doesn't like odds of Alabama, Georgia both making College Football Playoff in 2023

The last time Alabama and Georgia both made the College Football Playoff — at the conclusion of the 2021 season — the teams ended up meeting in the National Championship. ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit doesn’t see a similar such outcome in 2023 for the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide.

The reason, Herbstreit said on the ESPN College Football Playoff ranking show on Tuesday night, has a lot to do with the other leagues. There’s likely to be more than two playoff-worthy teams coming from the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC.

“I think it’s more likely that neither team will make than they both make it. Now, logic says if ‘Bama and Georgia win out and ‘Bama were to beat them — Boog [Booger McFarland] laid it out perfectly. In the past when we’ve had these two teams from one conference, it’s because of what’s happened in the Big 12, the Pac-12 and the ACC. Those conferences look strong right now. So, I don’t know if anybody is going to get 2 in so if I had to play the game, I’d say it’s more likely that neither will make it than both make it,” Herbstreit said.

Basically, if Alabama and Georgia both run the table, it would set up an SEC title game with the undefeated Bulldogs and one-loss Crimson Tide. If Alabama picks up a second loss, they’ll likely be easily out of playoff contention.

If the Crimson Tide win and are 12-1 conference champs, Herbstreit isn’t sure Georgia will have the wins on the schedule to justify making the field over a potential one-loss Pac-12, Big 12 or ACC champion, which might be what needs to happen for both teams to make the field.

And before fans started firing at him on social media, Herbstreit made clear: He just thinks it’s more likely that neither Georgia or Alabama make the playoff than both teams making it.

When it comes to a potential champion, Herbstreit was fairly certain who he’d pick

The College Football Playoff rankings will officially be unveiled on a weekly basis beginning next week, and ESPN’s crew is getting a head start on breaking down some of the key topics of interest.

On Tuesday night they tackled who should be regarded as the nation’s most likely team to win the national title, between Georgia and Michigan.

Michigan was the overwhelming favorite.

“I would say Michigan as we sit here. Now we’re looking at a team that hasn’t been challenged the way they will be against Penn State, of course, and against Ohio State at the end of the year,” ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit said. “But up to this point they’ve been the most consistent team offense, defense, special teams. Now they’ve got to block out the distractions about everything going on off the field, and they seem so far to be OK based on what we saw and the way they played against Michigan State. Got to give them credit.

“The big thing is they’ve got a quarterback that, you’ve always got to have that guy and know what you’re going to get. This is a team that came close last year. The bulk of that team came back this year. You knew going in that they had a shot to get back, and now based on what we’ve seen at the halfway point it’s hard to deny them. So between those two teams as we sit there right now for me, I think Michigan has the best shot.”