Sunday, Clemson learned who they would play first in the College Football Playoffs after winning the ACC Championship. The Stanford Cardinal won the PAC-12 championship, but two losses held them out of the running. Alabama beat Florida on Saturday while Michigan State edged Iowa. There might not be a bowl game with more future pros in it than this one, and I expect a classic in the desert.
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In the end, the only real debate was how to rank the top four teams.
I know what you’re thinking: More negativity from the media, right? I’m not upset by any stretch of the imagination. So I have no problems with where we are now. MI has won just three of its last 11 bowl games. The Golden Bears feature star quarterback Jared Goff as the future of head coach Sonny Dykes remains muddled, with the university and Dykes still haggling over a contract extension. They could have chosen their final four while sipping cocktails in a hot tub. Nothing at all like the week-to-week mayhem – with one once-in-a-lifetime-play after another – that made the season memorable. The committee identifies and compares the top teams, then votes them into the rankings. Iowa still hasn’t garnered the respect it deserves – and somehow gained more in its loss to Michigan State than it did for winning the first 12 games – but a win in the Rose Bowl would make a statement that Iowa truly is one of the best teams in the country.
Last season, the Tigers walloped the Sooners in the Russell Athletic Bowl.
Clemson, however, is the only undefeated team this season in the Football Bowl Subdivision, improving to 13-0 Saturday night with a 45-37 outlasting of North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game. OU, instead, will play No. 1 Clemson in the Orange Bowl.
Clemson and Oklahoma have split four meetings, dating back to 1963. And as was announced last week, Western Michigan plays at noon on Christmas Eve at the Bahamas Bowl against Middle Tennessee. The 80th playing of the Cotton Bowl will follow an afternoon matchup between top-seeded Clemson and fourth-seeded Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. The Oklahoma Sooners – the No. 4 ranked team in the final college football rankings before the playoff – would round out the eight-team tourney against the No. 5 ranked Iowa Hawkeyes. Give them a crystal football or whatever you call that new trophy, and all those blemishes disappear as if they had been dipped in Accutane.
Where last season the Big 12 was the sole Power 5 conference with no members included in the playoff, this season that league is the Pacific-12. Clemson has quarterback Deshaun Watson, and Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield will likely have a trip to NY this Saturday. Michigan State is seeking its first national title since 1966. Dabo Swinney’s Tigers celebrated Sunday with a pizza party that drew almost 30,000 fans. Thousands were in attendance to feast on the Tigers’ success and pepperoni.
Cities interested in hosting the national championship game must submit a bid, in a process similar to bidding for a Super Bowl site.
Alabama’s recently named team MVP shared what he knew about the Tide’s next opponent on Sunday. The players were allowed to sleep in for the announcement.
The Crimson Tide, which were 11-1 in the regular season, cruised past Florida, 29-15, for the Southeastern Conference championship.
Alabama’s Nick Saban was the coach at Michigan State from 1995-1999 before leaving for LSU, the Miami Dolphins and moving on to Tuscaloosa in 2007. The Tide also opened there in the 2012 season, when they won their last national title.
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Oklahoma State finished 16th in the final CFP poll and will make its first appearance in the Sugar Bowl in 70 years.
