Alabama vs. Cincinnati: Score, live updates for College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl

Kareem Elgazzar | USA TODAY Sports

The 2021 Cotton Bowl Classic, one of this season's two College Football Playoff Semifinals, will feature the most dominant college football program during the playoff era (Alabama) and arguably the playoff's greatest disruptor (Cincinnati).

Not only is the Crimson Tide the reigning national champion but it has won three national championships in the seven years of the playoff era, so the 2021-22 College Football Playoff presents the opportunity for Alabama to win half of the national championships in the first eight years of the playoff format. Despite losing last season's Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith and five other first-round NFL draft picks, Alabama is back in the playoff in a familiar spot: ranked No. 1. This is the fifth time in eight years that Alabama has been the No. 1 seed in the playoff and this year, the Crimson Tide are led by the program's first-ever Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback — Bryce Young, who has completed 68 percent of his passes for 4,322 yards and 43 touchdowns.

On the opposite sideline from Alabama on New Year's Eve will be No. 4 Cincinnati, which became the first non-Power 5 and non-Notre Dame program to make the playoff – in large part because of the Bearcats' road win over the Fighting Irish, which finished the regular season with an 11-1 record and the No. 5 ranking in the final CFP rankings.

Cincinnati has the personnel, at least on paper, to potentially challenge the powerful Tide. Cincinnati has a pair of elite cornerbacks in Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner and Coby Bryant — Bryant recently won the Jim Thorpe Award, which is awarded to the best defensive back in the sport, yet many observers believe Gardner is actually the better player. After the conference championship games, Cincinnati ranks fourth nationally in scoring defense (16.1 points allowed per game) and seventh in total defense (305 yards allowed per game).

Of course, No. 3 Georgia's defense was believed to be the best in the country prior to the SEC Championship Game, but then Alabama put up 41 points on Georgia, which hadn't allowed more than 17 in a game in the regular season.

Young's No. 1 receiver, at least as far as yardage and touchdowns, is Jameson Williams. He went for 184 yards and two touchdowns in the SEC Championship Game and his matchups with Gardner and/or Bryant could be the positional battle that decides this game. Williams' role is even greater now after fellow wide receiver John Metchie III (96 catches for 1,142 yards and eight touchdowns this season) suffered an ACL injury against Georgia.

Williams transferred from Ohio State, which has one of the deepest wide receiver rooms in the country, and he has been an immediate-impact player in Tuscaloosa. Ironically, one of Cincinnati's best skill position players came from Alabama. That's running back Jerome Ford, who ranked sixth on the team in carries in 2018, behind current NFL starting running backs Damien Harris, Josh Jacobs and Najee Harris. Ford is now in the midst of a senior season in which he's carried the ball 200 times for 1,238 yards and 19 touchdowns.

Ford is joined in the backfield by Cincinnati's veteran quarterback Desmond Ridder (3,190 passing yards and 30 passing touchdowns, 361 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns), and the Bearcats could try to limit the number of possessions through their rushing attack.

Either outcome of this season's Cotton Bowl Classic could be monumentous, as an Alabama team that just weeks ago was on the verge of losing to an Auburn team that's now 6-6 and that was starting its backup quarterback but the Crimson Tide is now eyeing its fourth championship in eight years of the playoff, or Cincinnati could become one of the greatest Cinderellas in a sport that rarely produces them.

The winner of the Cotton Bowl Classic will face the winner of No. 2 Michigan versus No. 3 Georgia in the College Football Playoff National Championship. Here is the 2021-22 College Football Playoff schedule: