A football championship is going to be brought to you by California
The Auburn-State Football Title Game: An Analysis of a Big State, the Alabama State, and the Cousins of the UCLA Football Football Association
According to the teams’ listings of their players’ hometowns, football fans in California can claim more players in the title game than their counterparts in Michigan or Washington.
Alabama is similar to Michigan in that it’s recruiting far beyond its borders. 42% of the squad was from Alabama, when the Tide last played in the title game.
The title teams’ rosters show how college football is becoming an ever more-professionalized sport, dominated by state colleges that have become burgeoning national brands. These days, alumni are routinely hit up to send money to line the pockets of potential star players through name, image and likeness deals. When a player leaves college, recruiting doesn’t stop.
The 1997 UM team was known for their talent and recruited in Texas and Florida, two big states with talented athletes. Tom Brady was playing behind Brian Griese of Florida at that time.
Washington’s 1991 championship roster, or at least the one it printed at the start of the year (a later version wasn’t available online), is much more similar — up to a point — to the makeup of today’s roster.
The list of transfers making an impact at Washington is long. It begins with Penix, who comes from Indiana, but also includes Johnson and Muhammad who both came from Oklahoma State.
Edge rusher Bralen Trice, out of Phoenix, has seven sacks to lead the Huskies. Running back Dillon Johnson, a Mississippi native, scored 16 touchdowns for the Huskies — but his status has been in question for the final, due to an injury in the last minute of the Sugar Bowl win over No. 3 Texas a week ago.
The rushing column is where the similarities end, with one of five UM players from Virginia being the one who scored against Alabama in the title game.
None of this is to say homegrown players don’t also help their teams. Will Johnson is from Detroit, a place where his side of the field sometimes gets quiet during games.
But the Wolverines’ leading tackler is linebacker Junior Colson of Brentwood, Tenn.; its leading receiver is Roman Wilson of Maui, Hawaii. Its imposing defense relies on players from many places.
Highly coveted athletes join programs that are outside their home state. The only two winners of the trophy who went to high school there have been Johnny Manziel and Robert Griffin III.
The Michigan team has nine national titles to their name, their first appearance in a national championship since 1997. Washington, which has two national titles, are in their first title game since 1991.
The Bulldogs’ Hive: Reheating in the Big Ten with the Washington Bee and the NCAA’s COVID-19 Exemption
But while both teams look far and wide to find talented players, one of them — Washington — also performed a quick turnaround thanks to another strategy: the transfer portal.
Washington is playing for it all just two years after going 4-8 in the 2021-2022 season. The NCAA’s transfer rules changed to make it easier for a player to sit out one year before he is eligible to play, and that led to the hiring of Kalen DeBoer.
It’s particularly poignant because Washington is poised to leave the PAC-12 to join Michigan in the Big Ten — a move that helped put the heralded “conference of champions” into what has been described as a death spiral.
Last year’s title game was a stark contrast to this year, when both contender’s rosters were dominated by local players. A number of players from Texas were listed by Texas Christian University. On the other sideline, the Bulldogs listed 77 players from Georgia on their 2022 roster.
“Just knowing the guys we had in this room and the brotherhood, we saw all the things we could do together,” Michigan sixth-year linebacker Michael Barrett told the AP. “We talked about what’s good for the hive is good for the bee, and what’s good for the bee is good for the hive.”
Fourteen of the 22 offensive and defensive starters from Washington are in their fifth or sixth season, while nine from Michigan are in their fifth or sixth season.
The NCAA granted extra years on the roster for players who would have lost a year of eligibility because of the shortening of the 2020 season. The COVID-19 exemption has translated to robust experience on both teams.
Jim Harbaugh, in his ninth season as the Michigan coach, took his alma mater to the semifinals in the past two years. He now advances to the title game after a bumpy season of six game suspensions, three for recruiting violations and three related to a sign-stealing scandal.
