2022 Peach Bowl

The 2022 Peach Bowl (officially known as the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl for sponsorship reasons) was a college football bowl game played on December 31, 2022, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. The game was the 55th annual playing of the Peach Bowl, one of the two semifinals of the 2022–23 College Football Playoff (CFP), and was one of the bowl games concluding the 2022 FBS football season. The game began at approximately 8:00 p.m. EST and aired on ESPN. It featured two of the four teams chosen by the selection committee to participate in the playoff: the Georgia Bulldogs from the Southeastern Conference and the Ohio State Buckeyes from the Big Ten Conference. The winner qualified for the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship against the winner of the other semifinal, hosted at the Fiesta Bowl.

Background
The Peach Bowl was founded as a fundraiser by the Atlanta chapter of the Lions Club in 1968 and played its first game that same year. The game was originally hosted by Georgia Tech at Grant Field before moving to Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium. The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce began organization of the game in 1986 and the location was once again moved to the Georgia Dome beginning in 1992. From 2006 to 2013 the game was known as the "Chick-fil-A Bowl" but resumed its present name in 2014. The game has been played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta since January 2018. Upon the implementation of the College Football Playoff (CFP) for the 2014 season, the Peach Bowl hosted playoff semifinal games in 2016 and 2019.

College Football Playoff
The four teams competing in the Playoff were chosen by the CFP selection committee, whose final rankings were released on December 4, 2022. The committee selected No. 1 Georgia of the Southeastern Conference, No. 2 Michigan of the Big Ten Conference, No. 3 TCU of the Big 12 Conference, and No. 4 Ohio State of the Big Ten Conference. Georgia and Michigan were champions of their respective conferences, while TCU lost in their conference championship game and Ohio State finished second in their division. Michigan and Washington entered the playoff with undefeated records while TCU entered 12–1 and Ohio State entered 11–1.

Teams
The game featured Georgia, undefeated champion of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and Ohio State, a one-loss team from the Big Ten Conference selected at-large by the College Football Playoff (CFP) committee. The only prior meeting between the two programs came in the 1993 Florida Citrus Bowl, a 21–14 Georgia victory.

Georgia
Georgia was undefeated in their 12-game regular season, facing and defeating two ranked FBS teams, Oregon and Tennessee. Their closest victory was by four points, over Missouri; all of their other wins were by at least 10 points. Georgia qualified for the SEC Championship Game, where they defeated LSU, 50–30. Georgia entered the Peach Bowl with an overall 13–0 record.

Ohio State
Ohio State won the first 11 games of their regular-season schedule, including victories over two ranked FBS teams, Notre Dame and Penn State. They lost to Michigan in their final regular-season contest, 45–23. Ohio State entered the Peach Bowl with an overall 11–1 record. They were selected largely in part due to USC losing to Utah in the Pac-12 Championship. Had USC beaten Utah, they would have gone to the Peach Bowl as they were #4 before the Pac-12 Championship.

Broadcast
The Peach Bowl was televised by ESPN, with the primary Saturday Night Football commentary team, Chris Fowler on play-by-play, Kirk Herbstreit as analyst, and Holly Rowe and Laura Rutledge on the sidelines. The ESPN Radio broadcast was commentated by Joe Tessitore, Greg McElroy, and Katie George.

ESPN aired its MegaCast coverage for both College Football Playoff semifinals and the National Championship Game; the primary telecast aired on ESPN while other channels in the ESPN family of networks aired alternate broadcasts. ESPN2 aired "Field Pass" with The Pat McAfee Show, which featured Pat McAfee along with Robert Griffin III, Taylor Lewan, and A. Q. Shipley, among others. Audio from the main telecast was played on both ESPNU, which aired Command Center, and ESPNews, which aired the SkyCast (a continuous feed from the skycam). The All-22 broadcast, on the ESPN app, was paired with audio from the ESPN Radio broadcast. The hometown radio broadcasts from each team were shown on the ESPN app as well; Ohio State's radio broadcast was commentated by Paul Keels, Jim Lachey, and Matt Andrews. while Georgia's featured Scott Howard, Eric Zeier, and D.J. Shockley. ESPN Deportes carried the Spanish language-broadcast, featuring Eduardo Varela, Pablo Viruega and Sebastian M. Christensen.

Game summary
The game's officiating crew, representing the Pac-12 Conference, was led by referee Chris Coyte and umpire Greg Adams. The game was played indoors at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.

Aftermath
The win improved Georgia to 14–0 and they advanced to the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship, where they faced Fiesta Bowl winners TCU. Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett and safety Javon Bullard were named the game's offensive and defensive most valuable players, respectively.