The teams are set.
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On Sunday, we will know the four teams qualifying for the College Football Playoff.
The Big Ten Championship Game between Michigan State and Iowa is a virtual play-in game.
Just 15 minutes later, No. 1 Clemson battles No. 10 North Carolina in the ACC Championship. The conference has plenty of historic programs, and a school from the Southeastern Conference won the title in seven straight seasons from 2006-12.
Wherever they go, look for a motivated Irish team on the big stage, insisted freshman quarterback DeShone Kizer.
The Crimson Tide (11-1) head into the matchup as the 17.5-point favorites against the Gators with the game’s total sitting at 40 points. Even a one-loss Pac-12 champion may even have been left out of the field, and the Cardinal have suffered two losses.
Case for: Clemson justified its No. 1 ranking by remaining undefeated and taking home the ACC title. “We didn’t win enough, but this is a really good football team”.
What was a picture-perfect day in their stadium on the banks of the Brazos was marred for the Bears with their third loss in four games and an early bench-clearing scuffle with Texas.
Michigan State showed no team in the country is tougher when the game is on the line. If the Crimson Tide and Tigers both lose, college football will descend into chaos, and all bets are off on who will make the cut.
The semifinals will be played on New Year’s Eve in the Cotton and Orange Bowls. Committee chairman Jeff Long said last week the rankings would not be manipulated to avoid putting Oklahoma in the nearby Dallas-area as a lower-seeded team. If Oklahoma maintains their number three seed they would be playing a little less than three hours from Norman, presuming Clemson and Alabama maintain their positions.
Cotton Bowl No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 3 Michigan State.
The Cougars are headed for either the Peach Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl, depending on how some of the other championship games play out. The sophomore closed the night with 32 carries for 207 yards and a touchdown, four receptions for 105 yards and a touchdown, an 11-yard touchdown pass, five kickoff returns for 120 yards, two punt returns for 29 yards and, if the voters do their jobs correctly, a plane ticket to NY for the Heisman Trophy ceremony.
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Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey had another sensational do-it-all game, with 461 all-purpose yards.
