The 2022 college football season will soon come to and end after the finale between TCU and Georgia on Jan. 9. Focus will then shift toward the top contenders for the 2023 title as teams across the country build their rosters.
Programs like Georgia, Alabama and Ohio State seem to be in contention every year, but a couple teams may have championship rosters. Historic programs like USC and Florida State seem to be be turning a page, and teams like LSU and Oregon will benefit from the second year in their head coaches' systems.
While the 2022 season has yet to be concluded, we're going to list the top 10 contenders for the 2023 national title.
Georgia Bulldogs
The Georgia Bulldogs have turned into a national powerhouse under head coach Kirby Smart. He's been with the Bulldogs since 2016, and since then UGA has appeared in two CFP National Championships, with their third appearance upcoming.
Smart has led the Bulldogs to double-digit wins in five seasons and won the SEC Championship in 2017 and 2022. Georgia may be the only team in the nation that has passed Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide to put themselves in a position to win a title every season. They've been ranked in the preseason top five for five straight seasons, and that likely won't stop soon.
Georgia will say goodbye to veteran quarterback Stetson Bennett after this season, which may hurt the program, but it seems like offensive coordinator Todd Monken's system can pretty much be plug-and-play. They also have a couple quality options behind Bennett, including former blue-chippers Carson Beck and Brock Vandagriff. They'll spend the 2023 offseason figuring out who will be under center, but the rest of the roster will simply be renewed by a different set of highly touted prospects already on the roster.
Alabama Crimson Tide
As long as Nick Saban is in Tuscaloosa, never count out the Alabama Crimson Tide. Teams are possibly catching up to the Tide, but Saban will still constantly field some of the top players in college football. In a down year for Alabama, they finished the season with the best overall record in the SEC West at 11-2.
They'll miss the production of their top two players in Bryce Young and Will Anderson, who declared for the 2023 NFL draft following the Sugar Bowl, but there's always an up-and-coming star waiting for their turn to enter stardom in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Alabama was seconds away from having the necessary resume to make the CFP, but an overtime loss to LSU and a game-winning field goal by Tennessee pushed them out of the playoffs. Their biggest issue in the 2022 season was discipline and open-field coverage, but the disappointment could come to a halt when the Crimson Tide look for vengeance.