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The SEC will once again have two teams in the College Football Playoff as both Alabama and Georgia were included in the top 4 of the final College Football Playoff rankings for the 2021 season.
The College Football Playoff selection committee revealed No. 1 Alabama (12-1), No. 2 Michigan (12-1), No. 3 Georgia (12-1) and No. 4 Cincinnati (13-0) as its top four teams, setting up the College Football Playoff semifinal round matchups, ESPN's Heather Dinich reports.
Alabama will face Cincinnati in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic and Michigan will face Georgia in the Capital One Orange Bowl, both of which are scheduled for New Year's Eve (December 31).
The winners of both matchups will play in the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship Final at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on January 10.
Alabama moved up two spots from the previous week, swapping spots with previously undefeated Georgia after defeating the Bulldogs, 41-24, in the SEC Championship Game.
The win marked the Tide's eighth conference title under head coach Nick Saban, who also won two during his five-year stint at LSU (2001, 2003) and extended Alabama's winning streak to seven consecutive games.
Alabama has previously appeared in a record 11 College Football Playoff games since the format change in 2014, which includes an NCAA best three national championships, five CFB Playoff Game appearances and eight wins in both the semifinal and final round games.
Alabama and Georgia had previously made the College Football Playoff simultaneously in 2017-18, with the Crimson Tide defeating the Bulldogs, 26-23, in overtime of the 2018 College Football Playoff Final.
No. 5 Notre Dame (11-1) and No. 6 Ohio State (10-2) each moved up one spot from the previous week following Oklahoma State's 21-16 loss to Baylor in the Big 12 Championship Game, but just missed the final cut.