Inside The Huskies

Here's One Man's Coming CFP Bracket — It Includes UW

Veteran insider Brett McMurphy has Huskies in his football Final Four.

Dan Raley

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The University of Washington football team has never appeared in the Sugar Bowl. 

Rose, Orange and Fiesta, yes, but not New Orleans' crowning postseason offering. 

The Huskies have never faced Georgia on the football field either over 134 seasons. 

Georgia State, OK, but not the high-pedigree Bulldogs.

If veteran college insider Brett McMurphy is correct, all of this will change for a Husky entry surely building a lot of momentum for the 2023 season.

McMurphy, who has worked for ESPN, CBS Sports and now the Action Network, laid out his plan for the final Final Four for the College Football Playoff before it expands to a dozen qualifiers the following season.

His way-too-early bracket had two dogs barking at each other in the semifinal round on Monday, January 1, 2024, in the Superdome.

Washington vs. Georgia.

The reigning Alamo Bowl champs against the two-time defending national champs.

Northwest against Southeast.

Kalen DeBoer matching wits with Kirby Smart.

A whole lot of woofing going on.

On the other side of the bracket, McMurphy chooses Michigan and Florida State to determine the matching semifinalists at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 in Pasadena. 

The Wolverines come off a CFP semifinal loss to TCU while the Seminoles beat Oklahoma in the Cheez-It Bowl.

Florida State made its one and only appearance in this college football postseason extravaganza in the first year of the four-team CFP operation in 2014, followed by the UW in 2016. Michigan has qualified for it the past two years, Georgia three of the past five seasons.

Just a reminder, this is just one man's analytical daydream three and a half months before the regular season begins, though if he's right, McMurphy likely will be voted a UW honorary degree or at the very least have someone buy him a drink or three in the French Quarter. 

And fair warning, he has Georgia and Michigan advancing to the national title game in Houston on Monday, Jan. 8, with those Bulldogs favored to three-peat, with the Huskies watching from home.

 

 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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