An official attendance of 68,311 people watched the Georgia Bulldogs defeat the Alabama Crimson Tide on Jan. 10, 2022, at Lucas Oil Stadium in the college football national championship game, marking the first full-scale season finale since before the pandemic.
Neither masks nor tests were required to attend the game, though the local health department “encouraged” both.
The game, along with all of the events that preceded it during the week, were a step forward compared to the unique NCAA men’s basketball tournament the year prior, where Indianapolis essentially became a bubble for teams, and fans were required to wear masks.
By the time the College Football Playoff national championship reached Indianapolis, Marion County was experiencing one of its sharpest rises in daily COVID-19 case counts, with seven-day averages reaching above 2,000 for a short span of days. That was also around the time the first vaccine boosters were being administered, and about 60% of the county had received at least the first shot.
There wasn’t an evident spike in COVID-19 cases after the national championship, but it may be impossible to say if the same is true for the parts of the country fans traveled from — presumably Georgia and Alabama for the most part.
Even though the game and festivities leading up to it didn’t experience disruptions, the College Football Playoff Committee did have extensive backup plans in case COVID-19 impacted one or both teams. That included vacating a national championship game altogether if both teams weren’t able to play, rather than trying to reschedule it.
UGA won its 1st title since 1980
The Bulldogs have spent much of the 21st century at or near the top of college football with 13 double-digit-win seasons going into the 2021 season. Still, that span only included three SEC titles and one championship game appearance: a three-point loss to Alabama in 2018.
The only reason Georgia wasn’t the No. 1 seed in the 2021-22 playoff is because of a loss to Alabama in the SEC championship game, which saw the Crimson Tide rack up 536 total yards on their way to 41 points.
It was a different script in the national title game. The Crimson Tide still managed just shy of 400 yards, but Georgia forced two interceptions from Heisman quarterback Bryce Young, and the offense found timely, explosive plays behind quarterback Stetson Bennett.
Georgia won 33-18.
“We talked about putting it on our shoulders and it being on us,” Georgia linebacker Nakobe Dean said of the defense. “We knew when we took the lead, we knew that if they don’t score no more, they don’t win. That’s the only thing that was going through our mind.”
For Bennett, a conventionally undersized signal-caller, his title run turned him into one of the more interesting figures in big-time college football. His grandfather once hitchhiked 400 miles to South Carolina to play football for the Gamecocks. And Bennett made headlines when he got rid of his iPhone in the summer of 2021, opting instead of the old-fashioned flip phone.
When media got a chance to speak with him a couple of days before the championship game, Bennett said smartphones offer too many distractions but that he wasn’t ready to swear them off.
“I’m not gonna be some nomad,” he said, “unless I decide to. I don’t know.”
Contact senior staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.
