The college football conference championships are playing out on Saturday, and Sunday will bring the selections of not only the four teams that will play in the 2015 College Football Playoff, but also all the bowl games.
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A decade before winning three national championships at Alabama, Nick Saban was the coach at Michigan State.
Michigan State has won its last four bowl games since, including last New Year’s Day in its first Cotton Bowl.
Alabama (12-1) is the champion of the SEC and is making its second straight appearance in the playoffs. Jake Coker is going to have to be smart when he matches up with Michigan State and the team has a long time to watch film on the defense.
“Last year’s game, people will talk about that”, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said, “but it really has nothing to do with this year’s game”.
“That was probably where we spent most of the time, as expected”, playoff committee chairman Jeff Long said.
Gus Malzhan: Clemson, Alabama, Michigan State, Oklahoma. “Both have four wins over Top 25 teams, but what it came down to is Michigan State’s two Top 10 wins, last week’s win over the No. 4 team and their complete body of work pushed Michigan State ahead”.
Alabama got 189 yards from Derrick Henry on a staggering 44 carries against Florida’s stingy defense Saturday to win the SEC title game 29-15.
The Spartans (12-1) moved past Oklahoma, which finished No. 4 and will play No. 1 Clemson in the Orange Bowl. The Tide and Spartans have played only once, with Alabama winning the Capital One Bowl 49-7 after the 2010 season. No. 2 Alabama will face No. 3 Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl.
The winners of the two semifinals will meet January 11 in the College Football Playoff National Championship presented by AT&T, held at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. As the nation’s only undefeated team, Clemson could win it all but – as of now – a whole new set of rules takes effect. That game may be painful for Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops to rewatch-Clemson won 40-6-but he may not have to because of how much both schools have changed since then.
A college football season filled with fantastic finishes led to a sleepy selection Sunday.
Playoff pairings will be announced at 12:30 p.m. No. 1 doesn’t matter. Or the monster fourth-quarter drive that ate Iowa and the Big Ten Championship Game. Three top 10 victories on their resume now.
The college football playoffs show begins at noon on ESPN. One that began the season within the top four for the sixth year in a row. Stanford won the Pac-12 title Saturday by beating USC, but losses toNorthwestern and OR prevented the Cardinal from a national championship push.
Michigan State went 6-1 in games decided by a touchdown or less.
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Alabama is exactly the same team it would’ve been with or without the Backwards Hail Mary, but thanks to a miracle in a game the Tide didn’t even play, they have a shot at the national title.
