2023 College Football Playoff National Championship

The game featured the No. 1 and defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) (winners of the Peach Bowl) and the No. 3 TCU Horned Frogs of the Big 12 Conference (winners of the Fiesta Bowl). Georgia defeated TCU 65–7. The 58-point victory for Georgia is the most lopsided win in a College Football Playoff National Championship Game, the largest margin of victory in a title game, and at the time, was the largest margin of victory in any bowl game at the FBS level, until the Bulldogs surpassed that in the 2023 Orange Bowl.^[4] Georgia became the first team since the 2012 Alabama Crimson Tide to repeat as national champions. They also became just the third college football team to complete a 15–0 season in the modern era after the 2018 Clemson Tigers and the 2019 LSU Tigers. They were subsequently joined by the 2023 Michigan Wolverines. This was the fourth consecutive national championship won by the Southeastern Conference (SEC).


The broadcast of the game on ESPN saw the smallest audience in the game's history, coming at 16.6 million viewers.

Aftermath[edit]

In an unusual coincidence, Stetson Bennett and Max Duggan were selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the fourth round and Los Angeles Chargers in the seventh round, respectively, the same teams that play at SoFi Stadium. They met again on August 13, 2023, in a preseason game also held at SoFi Stadium, where the Chargers won 34–17.


Georgia went on to an undefeated regular season in 2023, and extended their winning streak to 29 games, heading into the 2023 SEC Championship Game against Alabama. Their winning streak started and ended with that team. Georgia lost, 27–24, which snapped their 29-game winning streak, and failed to make the College Football Playoff and play for a third consecutive national title. The team also became the first to miss the playoffs after being ranked number one going into the championship weekend. Georgia was invited to the Orange Bowl against Florida State, where they earned a dominating 63–3 win, setting a new record for the largest margin of victory of any bowl game at the FBS level (or its historical predecessors).^[23] Meanwhile, TCU had a rough season. With the loss of Duggan, TCU plummeted to No. 17 in the preseason polls. They lost to Colorado in the season opener, 45-42. They then won their next three games, but after that, suffered a collapse, losing six of their last eight games of the regular season to finish 5–7 and missed becoming bowl-eligible.