By: Michael Flores
Before students went off to winter break, the College Football Playoffs (CFP) were about to start with its first 12-team bracket. Our Gigantea sports section writers had made predictions with confidence in who they thought would win the National Championship, and let’s just say they were a bit too confident with their picks.
Photo M.Flores/Gigantea
Jake Villarreal, ‘28, had picked the Oregon Ducks, who were undefeated all season and were ranked the #1 team in the entire country, to win the National Championship. Their season ended in the quarterfinals after a huge loss in a Rose Bowl rematch against the Ohio State Buckeyes by the score of 41-21. When Villarreal shared about his pick being wrong, he said “I was disappointed. The game was just brutal and it was bad for the Ducks.”
With the #1 ranked team being eliminated that quickly, people would always assume the second best team to be champion. Everyone would think Georgia, who won the SEC Championship and would face #7 Notre Dame to win. No one expected a Notre Dame upset.
Photo M.Flores/Gigantea
Lucas de Lima, ‘25, had picked Georgia to win the National Championship before the playoffs started. de Lima very confident in Georgia until they lost against Notre Dame in the quarterfinals. de Lima shared his thoughts about his pick being wrong and said, “I laughed at it. I made that prediction with Carson Beck as a starting quarterback and not even 24 hours after I made that prediction, he was ruled out.”
After the National Championship game on January 20th, the Ohio State Buckeyes are National Champions, winning against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish by the score of 34-23 to win their 9th title in program history, winning their first title since 2015 and ending a 10-year drought.
Michael Flores
Tags: cfp, cfp predictions, college football, rangers, Redwood, redwood football, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, redwood sports, rhs, rhs football, visalia ca
