The Michigan football team’s historic season continues.
On New Year’s Eve, the second-seeded Wolverines will take on No. 3 seed Georgia in the Orange Bowl, with the winner going on to play for a national championship against the winner of Alabama and Cincinnati.
The Wolverines and Bulldogs have played just twice before, splitting matchups in Ann Arbor in 1957 and 1965. The two have never met in the postseason before.
The game will mark Michigan’s first College Football Playoff appearance and its third appearance in the Orange Bowl. The Wolverines’ most recent Orange Bowl appearance — a 33-32 loss to Florida State in 2016 — dropped them to 1-2 all time in the bowl. Georgia has also appeared in three Orange Bowls all time, tallying a 2-1 record.
In a more immediate sense, the Wolverines are coming off a hot finish to the season after a 42-3 victory over Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Game, while the Bulldogs will be looking to recover from a 41-24 loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship.
As it has been for weeks, it’s win or go home. Time will tell if the Wolverines are up to the challenge.