Big Ten Champion third ranked Michigan State will take on number-2 Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinals New Year’s Eve in the Cotton Bowl. The Crimson Tide played its first Cotton Bowl game on January 1, 1942, defeating Texas A&M, 29-21, following the 1941 regular season. “Our charge is rank the No. 1 team through 4, the best four teams”. I’m not upset by any stretch of the imagination.
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Not much separated the two sides at half, with Iowa owning a thin 6-3 lead over Michigan State. “It was dogfight. That’s probably one of the tougher teams we played this year and they came out the play the whole game, but I felt we kind of wore them down at the end”. It just proves that this team, no matter how bad things look, we’re going to keep fighting, we’re going to keep pushing and we’re going to scratch our way to a victory.
BOWL HISTORY: Clemson is 19-18 in bowl games, with their 19 victories tied for 17th most in college football. 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. No complaints. Nothing at all like the week-to-week mayhem – with one once-in-a-lifetime-play after another – that made the season memorable. As the top seed, the Tigers get to play as close to home as possible.
“That’s certainly the case in this game, just like it was in this last game against Jim McElwain and Florida and with Will at Auburn, and it will be when we play Kirby someday”. That left the top seven college football teams with some differentiation from the rest of the field.
“Last year’s game, people will talk about that, but it really doesn’t mean anything”, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney said in an interview with ESPN.
The four teams in line for the playoffs appear to be Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma and Michigan State.
Across the playoffs bracket, SEC Champion Alabama will face Big 10 Champion Michigan State in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. The Tide’s 2015 season kicked off in Arlington, as Alabama defeated then-No.
–Ohio State, last year’s national champion, will not get an opportunity to defend its title and also missed out on a chance to play in the Rose Bowl, but the Buckeyes will still play in a game that will attract a lot of attention as they will face Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.
Michigan State won the Big Ten championship 16-13 over Iowa on Saturday night, and Saban was pulling for his former team and assistant while watching the epic 22-play drive that ended with freshman L.J. Scott lunging forward for a 1-yard touchdown in the final minute.
And that was it for drama, if you could even call it that. These are two teams that could easily be playing for the national title if a couple of plays go the other way (and who might have played for a championship a couple of years ago if not for Ohio State’s probation). Thousands were in attendance to feast on the Tigers’ success and pepperoni.
Iowa Hawkeyes’ head man Kirk Ferentz would still be chasing the college football national championship in an eight-team playoff format. Alabama players were allowed to sleep in.
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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.
