The announcement every college football fan has been waiting for all season was released Sunday afternoon: the four teams that will make it into the first ever college football playoff. Here’s what the committee decided which teams will face off on New Year’s Day in the semifinal matchups.
No. 1 Alabama vs No. 4 Ohio State
This side of the playoff bracket caused the most controversy, mostly because the Buckeyes made it into the top four.
Last week the Buckeyes were still on the outside looking in at No. 5, with both Florida State and TCU in front of them in the top four. After Ohio State drubbed No. 13 Wisconsin 59-0 in the Big Ten Championship — with its third-string quarterback no less — the committee put them into the fourth spot.
Ohio State finished the regular season with just two Top 25 wins over then No. 8 Michigan State and No. 25 Minnesota.
As a result, the Big 12 co-champions — as they were named by Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby — TCU and Baylor were left out of the playoff hunt altogether.
Since the Big 12 has only 10 teams, each team plays nine conference games which makes a conference championship game unnecessary.
Ohio State played its 13th game — one more game than TCU and Baylor played — with Saturday’s Big Ten title game. Instead of a playoff bid, TCU will face No. 6 Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl and Baylor gets No. 8 Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl Classic.
As expected, the Crimson Tide retained their No. 1 ranking after beating Missouri 42-13 in the SEC Title game in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday. Alabama’s one loss was a six-point defeat by Ole Miss in the Rebels’ stadium back in early October.
No. 2 Oregon vs No. 3 Florida State
Florida State will have its toughest matchup defensively facing No. 2 Oregon in Pasadena, California.
The Ducks come in with the No. 3 ranked scoring and total offense in the country. The current Heisman favorite, quarterback Marcus Mariota, has amassed over 3,700 yards passing and hasn’t thrown a pick since Nov. 1 against Stanford.
The Ducks had an impressive 51-13 victory over Arizona in the Pac-12 title game last week — the Wildcats were the only team to beat Oregon in the regular season this year.
Florida State stuck to its usual script and survived a close one in their Atlantic Coast Conference title game, defeating Georgia Tech 37-35. The Seminoles victory was enough to bump them up to the third spot.
Follow Morgan Moriarty on Twitter @Morgan_Moriarty
In this Dec. 6, 2008, file photo, Florida coach Urban Meyer, left, and Alabama coach Nick Saban shake hands after Florida defeated Alabama 31-20 in the Southeastern Conference Championship NCAA college football game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Saban's top-seeded Alabama Crimson Tide (12-1) faces Meyer's fourth-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes (12-1) on New Year's Day, a semifinal matchup between two of the most storied programs in the game’s history. There’s history between the two, most notably at two classic SEC championship games.
