Three of those wins – over Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State – came in the month of November and allowed Oklahoma to quickly climb the College Football Playoff rankings and claim the Big 12 championship. The Rose Bowl, which matches the champions of the Pac-12 and Big Ten, has its choice of another team from one of those conferences if that conference’s champion plays in a national semifinal game.
Advertisement
Much will be made of Clemson crushing Oklahoma 40-6 a year ago in an Orlando bowl game that meant much less than this.
Just a few hours earlier, Derrick Henry had a staggering 44 carries for 189 yards in Alabama’s 29-15 victory over Florida in the SEC title game.
As for Michigan State, no team in the playoff stared down defeat as frequently as the Spartans, and no situation was as dire as the one Michigan faced at “The Big House” in mid-October.
“It was really a function of what Michigan State did in their 13th game”, Long said.
Clemson and Oklahoma like to score. If this had been the BCS era, there would have been incredible howling Sunday over Alabama getting picked over Michigan State given their resumes.
COTTON COMEBACK: Michigan State’s comeback in the Cotton Bowl last January was the school’s biggest ever in a postseason game.
Middle Tennessee (7-5) of Conference USA takes a four-game win streak to the Bahamas for their first bowl since 2013.
The 2013 Florida States, the 2009 Alabamas, the 1995 Nebraskas, the winners that mow down everyone in their path, come along in college football somewhere between once every Olympiad and once every Halley’s Comet.
The Crimson Tide reached the playoff by winning Saturday’s Southeastern Conference championship game over Florida and coach Jim McElwain, who was Saban’s offensive coordinator at Alabama from 2008 to ’11. Clemson is No. 1 as an ode to its unbeaten record, not as a reward for taking time off late in games. Clemson coaches knew Watson’s wheels would be a weapon, but it was one they didn’t want to use until it was needed most – like in the rain against Notre Dame. He is the second straight Florida coach to hold South Carolina’s permanent job, following Spurrier, who left in mid-October after 10-plus seasons in Columbia.
On Saban’s staff in East Lansing as a defensive backs coach was Mark Dantonio, now the Michigan State coach, trying to bring the Spartans their first national title since it finished first in the coaches’ poll in 1965. Underrated quarterback Connor Cook showed his mettle in a 22-play drive that included one fourth-down and five third-down conversions in the rally against Iowa for the Big Ten title.
Still, the committee had to be relieved that its main decision this year was where to seed Michigan State and Oklahoma. Long cited the Spartans’ two top-10 victories, including a win on Saturday over Iowa, which was the committee’s No. 4 team last week.
The Sooners opened as a 2 1/2-point favorite, marking the first time this season that Clemson will play the role of underdog. They played that game so close. How the College Football Playoff selection committee ranks them is all that remains to be seen.
Smart was expected to remain at Alabama through the playoffs, though Saban would surely carve out time for him to handle some of his new duties at Georgia.
Fortunately for the committee, it’s picking four teams and not two. Clemson and Alabama both won and Oklahoma did not have a conference championship.
Advertisement
The final regular-season Top 25 is out and Michigan State has moved up two spots to No. 3 behind Clemson and Alabama.
