It almost feels impossible that Georgia and Oklahoma have played only once. The Bulldogs and Sooners are two of the 11 winningest college football programs, they've enjoyed top-10 finishes in the same season 13 times, and they're only two of five teams to have played in at least five College Football Playoffs. They've even been conference mates for a couple of years now! But they've mostly been ships passing in the night.
But the two teams made their one meeting count. In one of those perfect days that can seem to happen only in Pasadena, they met in the Rose Bowl just under nine years ago and played an almost flawless game of football. The two teams will finally meet for a second time this week -- Oklahoma visits Athens on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN) -- so let's use that as an excuse to relive what was quite possibly the best playoff game of the CFP era.
Actually, let's use that as an excuse to relive lots of awesome games. Here are the 10 best playoff games of the first 12 CFPs.
1. 2017 semifinals: No. 3 Georgia 54, No. 2 Oklahoma 48 (OT)
The No. 2 game on this list featured maybe the greatest national title-winning play of all time. The No. 3 game decided the national title with three seconds left. The Georgia-Oklahoma ending wasn't quite that perfect, but (a) it was still very good, and (b) this game was amazing because it was a montage. The memorable moments began pretty early and continued for about four hours.
I almost guarantee that there are some plot twists you've forgotten.
This game basically featured three acts. First, Oklahoma turned the game into a big-play track meet and seemed in control. Then, Georgia stormed back, grabbing three extra points before halftime and then dominating the third quarter. And then, in the third act, all hell broke loose.
Act I: After a Georgia punt, Oklahoma took an early lead thanks to passes of 16, 26 and 23 yards by Baker Mayfield and a 13-yard touchdown run by Hollywood Brown. Georgia responded with a 13-yard Sony Michel touchdown (after 20-yard-plus runs from Michel and Nick Chubb), but OU responded in kind when a 45-yard Rodney Anderson run set up a 9-yard Anderson touchdown.
After a missed field goal attempt from Rodrigo Blankenship, OU made it 21-7 with a 41-yard Anderson touchdown. Even when Georgia responded with a 75-yard Michel touchdown -- this was such a fireworks show -- the Sooners then rattled off an Austin Seibert made field goal and, after a 31-yard run by Trey Sermon and a 45-yard pass to Brown, a CeeDee Lamb-to-Mayfield touchdown pass. Oklahoma led 31-14 with six seconds left in the first half.
Oklahoma's win probability at that point: 92.6%.
Act II: The first foreboding twist came with some clock magic I've never quite understood. Georgia's Tae Crowder somehow fielded an atrocious squib kick from Seibert at the OU 47 with no time elapsing. I honestly feel like squib kicks are terrible ideas about 90% of the time they're attempted, so this was a bit of karma, but at least one second should have come off the clock. That became huge when one second remained after a quick pass from Jake Fromm to Terry Godwin. Blankenship boomed in a 55-yard field goal to make the score a more manageable 31-17 at halftime.
Georgia took those three charity points and ran with them in the second half. The Dawgs forced an OU three-and-out, then Chubb scored an immediate 50-yard touchdown to make it 31-24.
After two more Sooners punts -- OU gained only 29 yards in the third quarter -- Michel scored from 38 yards out to tie the score with 41 seconds left in the quarter. That set up an incredible, frantic final act.
Act III: Michel's tying touchdown was the first play of the game that featured at least 15% win probability added for one team. Over the fourth quarter and overtimes, we'd get seven more.
Q4, 15:00: Dominick Sanders picks off Mayfield and returns it to the OU 4. (WPA: Georgia +19.1%.) On the very first play of the quarter, Georgia set itself up to take the lead. On the second play after Sanders' pick, Fromm found Javon Wims for a 4-yard score, and Georgia led for the first time.
Q4, 8:47: Steven Parker returns a Michel fumble 46 yards for a go-ahead Oklahoma touchdown. (WPA: Oklahoma +42.0%.) Down for the first time, OU immediately went three-and-out again, but a reeling defense bought the Sooners time by forcing a punt. Mayfield completed a 36-yard pass to Lamb, ran for 22 yards, then found Dimitri Flowers for a tying touchdown. And four plays later, the Sooners led again when Caleb Kelly stripped Michel, and Parker raced down the right sideline for a scoop-and-score.
Q4, 3:22: Fromm passes to Godwin for 16 yards to the OU 7 on third-and-10. (WPA: Georgia +18.3%.) Suddenly reeling again, Georgia quickly went three-and-out, and OU had a chance to put away the game. Instead, Anderson was stuffed for no gain on third-and-3, and Georgia got the ball back with 3:22 left. Passes to Godwin and Michel worked the ball into OU territory, and on third down with 1:06 left, Fromm found Godwin again for his biggest completion of the game. After a pass interference penalty, Chubb tied the score with 55 seconds left. A last-ditch OU attempt at a winning score stalled out at midfield, and the game headed to overtime.
OT No. 1: Fromm throws incomplete to Isaac Nauta on third-and-6. (WPA: Oklahoma +15.5%.) Georgia got the ball first in OT and went nowhere. Carries by Chubb and Michel gained 4 yards, and Nauta dropped a wide-open pass at the OU 5. Blankenship nailed a 38-yard field goal, but the match was back on OU's proverbial racket.
OT No. 1: Roquan Smith stops Jordan Smallwood for 1 yard on third-and-2, and Lincoln Riley elects to kick a field goal. (WPA: Georgia +24.7%.) Riley has a revolutionary offensive mind; he has been one of the game's best playcallers for most of the past 15 years now. But in his heart, he's a conservative old Texas high school football coach, and even with super-powered offenses, he despised the idea of going for it on fourth down. His offense had gained over 500 yards on a Kirby Smart defense, but when Smallwood was stopped short by an otherworldly tackle from Smith, Riley sent on the field goal unit instead of going for a potential win. Seibert made a 33-yard field goal, but OU's best chance of winning was gone.
OT No. 2: Lorenzo Carter blocks Seibert's 27-yard field goal attempt. (WPA: Georgia +27.6%) OU moved the chains once in the second OT, but a pass to Brown on third-and-12 came up 5 yards short, and the Sooners settled for another field goal attempt. This one didn't go through.
OT No. 2: Michel scores the winning 27-yard touchdown run. (WPA: Georgia +18.9%.) Emmanuel Beal made a nice play to stop D'Andre Swift for a 2-yard loss on Georgia's second OT possession, but that gave Michel only a couple of more yards to work with. He bolted down the left sideline and sent Georgia to the national title game.
At the end of all that, we had an almost perfect win probability chart.
The game had countless standout performances
And the stats reflect that.
Michel rushed 11 times for 181 yards and three touchdowns, and Chubb added 146 yards and two more scores on 14 carries. That's 13.0 yards per carry between them. (Michel also caught four passes for 41 yards and another score.) Anderson, meanwhile, nearly matched them for much of the game, finishing with 201 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries. Imagine rushing for 200 yards in the biggest game of your life and being the third-best running back on the field.
Mayfield, who had won the Heisman Trophy a few weeks earlier, lived up to his billing, throwing for 287 yards and two scores, rushing for 44 yards (not including sacks) and catching a touchdown pass. Brown and Lamb, each future NFL first-round draft picks, combined for 14 catches, 180 yards, a touchdown catch and a touchdown pass.
Fromm was less explosive but tidy, completing 20 of 29 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns and leading a vital, late tying drive. Godwin and Javon Wims combined for 11 catches and 124 yards.
Despite the offenses combining for 1,058 yards, both defenses featured great performances. Kenneth Murray Jr. had nine tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack for OU, and Parker made six tackles and a sack in addition to his scoop-and-score. Meanwhile, Smith was his typical dynamite self, with 11 tackles, a tackle for loss and a saving third-down tackle in OT, and Carter made 10 tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss to go with his blocked kick, and Sanders' interception of Mayfield set up Georgia's first lead.
Blankenship also came up huge, kicking in the 55-yarder before halftime and going 1-for-1 in OT.
This game had future pros everywhere you looked, and it gave us the fullest possible range of football emotions. It was perfect. When people tell you the national title game should be in the Rose Bowl every season, I somehow think of this game even before I think of 2006 USC-Texas and other recent classics.
Georgia is a two-touchdown favorite against Oklahoma on Saturday, so the odds don't favor similar drama. But that's fine -- there was almost no way for the sequel to match the original anyway.
2. 2017 finals: No. 4 Alabama 26, No. 3 Georgia 23 (OT)
After the emotional high of the Rose Bowl win, of course, Georgia suffered a crushing low, falling short due to the greatest ending ever to a national title game.
3. 2016 finals: No. 2 Clemson 35, No. 1 Alabama 31
After narrowly outlasting Clemson in the title game the year before (we'll get to that one), Alabama bolted to a 14-0 lead with a pair of Bo Scarbrough touchdowns and still led 24-14 heading into the fourth quarter despite Scarbrough leaving the game with an injury. But a large ball-possession advantage would begin to pay off for the Tigers, who scored on three long fourth-quarter drives. They took their first lead with 4:38 left, but Bama freshman Jalen Hurts responded with a 30-yard touchdown run. Clemson got the ball back with 2:07 remaining ... and used 2:06 of the clock.
4. 2019 semifinals: No. 3 Clemson 29, No. 2 Ohio State 23
This one was so good that I gave it the "scoring it as a 12-round title fight" treatment.
Joe Burrow and LSU were the main characters of the 2019 season for obvious reasons, but Ryan Day also might have fielded his best Ohio State team that year. The Buckeyes outscored their first 13 opponents by an average of 48.7 to 12.5, winning every game by double digits, and they also dominated Clemson for a quarter and a half; only red zone stops, and three subsequent Ohio State field goals, kept the Tigers in the game. But down 16-0, they stormed back, getting a pair of breaks along the way -- Ohio State cornerback Shaun Wade was ejected for targeting late in the second quarter, and what sure looked like a Justyn Ross fumble (and a Jordan Fuller scoop-and-score) was ruled an incomplete pass. It was just enough to tip the balance. Travis Etienne Jr. scored with 1:49 left, and Nolan Turner stepped in front of a potential winning TD pass to move the Tigers to the national title game.
5. 2024 quarterfinals: No. 5 Texas 39, No. 4 Arizona State 31 (2OT)
This was the first classic of the 12-team playoff era. Texas used a 17-0 run to seize control of this Peach Bowl quarterfinal, but led by indomitable Sacramento State Hornets transfer Cam Skattebo (242 yards from scrimmage), Arizona State outscored the Longhorns 21-7 in the second half to send the game to overtime. Skattebo scored his second touchdown to give the Sun Devils the lead, and the ASU defense quickly knocked Texas backward as well. But Quinn Ewers threw the pass of his life, a fourth-and-13 touchdown to Matthew Golden, then immediately found Gunnar Helm for another touchdown to start the second OT. Andrew Mukuba picked off Sam Leavitt, and somehow Texas survived.
6. 2022 semifinals: No. 3 TCU 51, No. 2 Michigan 45
7. 2022 semifinals: No. 1 Georgia 42, No. 4 Ohio State 41
Maybe the single best CFP day came on Dec. 31, 2022. Both semifinals were incredible. First, TCU, a 7.5-point underdog against unbeaten Michigan, did what many underdogs have done through the years: bolt to a lead and then hold on for dear life. Only, they did it a few different times. There were runs of 21-3 TCU, 13-0 Michigan and 20-6 TCU, all before the fourth quarter, and when Michigan scored twice in a minute to make it 41-38 TCU, Quentin Johnston's 76-yard catch and run put the Horned Frogs up double digits again. Michigan got to within six and got the ball back with 45 seconds left, but the Wolverines went four-and-out, and TCU survived.
As a 5-point underdog against the defending champions, Ohio State then tried to pull a TCU. They took an early 21-7 lead thanks to two Marvin Harrison Jr. touchdowns, weathered a 17-0 Georgia response and scored 17 straight right back to take a 38-24 lead into the fourth quarter. Arian Smith's 76-yard touchdown made it 38-35 with 8:41 left, and when Ohio State could respond only with a field goal, it opened the door for a go-ahead touchdown: Stetson Bennett IV to Adonai Mitchell for 10 yards with 54 seconds left. Ohio State quickly drove to within range of a 50-yard field goal attempt at the buzzer. Noah Ruggles' kick went up in one year and sailed far wide in the next.
8. 2015 finals: No. 2 Alabama 45, No. 1 Clemson 40
With 405 passing yards, four touchdowns and 73 rushing yards, Clemson's Deshaun Watson was so good in this one that when Alabama tied the score early in the fourth quarter, coach Nick Saban felt he needed an extra possession to win the game. Bama recovered a surprise onside kick, Jake Coker found O.J. Howard for a 51-yard touchdown, and the Tide never relinquished the lead. But they still needed a Kenyan Drake kick-return score, another huge pass to Howard (which set up Derrick Henry's third touchdown run) and a late onside kick recovery to hold off the Tigers.
9. 2025 finals: No. 1 Indiana 27, No. 10 Miami 21
After destroying Alabama and Oregon by a combined 94-25 in two playoff games, Indiana got all it could handle from Miami in the title game. The Hoosiers led 17-7 heading into the fourth quarter, but the Hurricanes cut the lead to three points on two occasions, and Indiana needed a rugged touchdown run from Fernando Mendoza and a Jamari Sharpe interception to reel in its first national title.
10. 2025 semifinals: No. 10 Miami 31, No. 6 Ole Miss 27
When Miami got the ball back in the final minutes of the title game, it was almost impossible not to see the Hurricanes driving down and winning the game. It was, after all, what they did one game earlier. They dominated their semifinal matchup with Trinidad Chambliss and Ole Miss early, but a long Kewan Lacy touchdown run and three field goals from Lucas Carneiro kept the Rebels in it at 17-16.
With their offense starting to roll, Ole Miss also took the lead on two occasions in the fourth quarter, but a 36-yard burst from Malachi Toney capped one 75-yard go-ahead drive for Miami, and Carson Beck's 3-yard scramble with 18 seconds left capped a second. Ole Miss came achingly close to a touchdown prayer on the final play, but Miami survived.
The next 10
11. 2024 semifinals: No. 7 Notre Dame 27, No. 6 Penn State 24
12. 2025 quarterfinals: No. 6 Ole Miss 39, No. 3 Georgia 34
13. 2023 semifinals: No. 2 Washington 37, No. 3 Texas 31
14. 2023 semifinals: No. 1 Michigan 27, No. 4 Alabama 20 (OT)
15. 2014 semifinals: No. 4 Ohio State 42, No. 1 Alabama 35
16. 2021 finals: No. 3 Georgia 33, No. 1 Alabama 18
17. 2024 semifinals: No. 8 Ohio State 28, No. 5 Texas 14
18. 2025 first round: No. 10 Miami 10, No. 7 Texas A&M 3
19. 2025 quarterfinals: No. 10 Miami 24, No. 2 Ohio State 14
20. 2019 finals: No. 1 LSU 42, No. 3 Clemson 25