The first 12-team College Football Playoff will not have any of its top four seeds in the semifinals.
Second-seeded Georgia was the final one to fall Thursday evening, as seventh-seeded Notre Dame used Jayden Harrison’s 98-yard kickoff return that opened the second half to build a stunning 20-3 advantage before peeling off the minutes in a 23-10 topping of the Bulldogs at the AllState Sugar Bowl quarterfinal inside the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. The Sugar Bowl was postponed from Wednesday night due to the terrorist attack that occurred early that morning on Bourbon Street.
The Bulldogs, who won last month’s Southeastern Conference championship game, finished Kirby Smart’s ninth season as head coach at his alma mater with an 11-3 record. Georgia had not lost its final game of a season since the 2018 team fell to Texas in the Sugar Bowl.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t end it off on the right way this year,” Bulldogs junior linebacker Jalon Walker said afterward in a news conference. “I just know that we played and gave it our all.”
Notre Dame, which defeated Georgia for the first time ever after three unsuccessful tries, improved to 13-1, won 13 games for the first time in its storied history, and will now advance to the Orange Bowl semifinal Jan. 9 against sixth-seeded Penn State (13-2). The other semifinal occurs Jan. 10 in the Cotton Bowl, where fifth-seeded Texas (13-2) will face eighth-seeded Ohio State (12-2).