2020–21 College Football Playoff

The 2020–21 College Football Playoff was a single-elimination postseason tournament that determined the national champion of the 2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season. It was the seventh edition of the College Football Playoff (CFP) and involved the top four teams in the country as ranked by the College Football Playoff poll playing in two semifinals, with the winners of each advancing to the national championship game. Three of the four teams were champions of their respective conferences: No. 1 Alabama from the Southeastern Conference, No. 2 Clemson from the Atlantic Coast Conference, and No. 3 Ohio State from the Big Ten Conference. The final participant, No. 4 Notre Dame, was an FBS independent.

The playoff bracket's semifinal games were held at the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day, part of the season's slate of bowl games. The Rose Bowl semifinal, held in Arlington, Texas, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saw Alabama defeat Notre Dame, 31–14. It was the first Rose Bowl held away from Pasadena, California, since 1942. The second semifinal, at the Sugar Bowl, matched Clemson and Ohio State in a rematch of the previous season's semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl. After losing the previous matchup, Ohio State defeated Clemson by a twenty-one-point margin. Following their wins, Alabama and Ohio State advanced to the national championship game, held on January 11 in Miami Gardens, Florida. A rematch of the CFP semifinal at the 2015 Sugar Bowl, the Crimson Tide defeated the Buckeyes, 52–24, to win their third CFP national championship and their eighteenth claimed national championship in school history.

The national championship was the least viewed game of the playoff; the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl semifinals received 18.9 million and 19.1 million viewers, respectively, compared to the 18.7 million viewers for the championship game. Alabama head coach Nick Saban won his seventh national title, which broke a tie with Bear Bryant for the most all-time.