So No. 1 Clemson will face No. 4 Oklahoma in Miami, while No. 2 Alabama gets No. 3 Michigan State in Dallas.
Advertisement
Michigan State (12-1) beat previously undefeated Iowa on Saturday night for the Big Ten championship and to earn its playoff spot.
The College Football Playoff has Alabama No. 2 and they will play No. 3 Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl. The Tigers, Spartans and Crimson Tide all won conference championships over the weekend and those teams are ranked ahead of the Sooners heading into the playoff.
Alabama, which won its second consecutive SEC championship Saturday against Florida, finished No. 2 in the committee’s final rankings.
“What I tell our players…is guys, you really should be happy and you should be excited about what you have been able to accomplish and winning the SEC championship, but now I have a question for you: What do you want to do now?” said Tide coach Nick Saban, who has led Alabama to three national championships and coached at Michigan State from 1995-99. The No. 5 Spartans defeated No. 4 Iowa 16-13 in the Big Ten championship game in what amounted to a de facto quarterfinal.
Both offenses, though routed in the spread, have powerful running games with Wayne Gallman (Clemson) and Samaje Perine/Joe Mixon (Oklahoma), respectively. The biggest could come from the Big Ten championship game, where Michigan State handed Iowa its first loss of the year. It’s a rematch of last season’s Russell Athletic Bowl, a 40-6 romp for the Tigers that served as a springboard of sorts on the way for Dabo Swinney’s team to be the last unbeaten club at the FBS level this season.
I’m not buying the conspiracy theory of how the committee ignored the specter of an Alabama-Oklahoma semifinal – on the presumptive rationale of the Crimson Tide (12-1 overall, SEC champs) and Sooners (12-1 overall, Big 12 champs) being the nation’s two best teams.
Long is the chairman of the CFP selection committee – a 12-person group that makes the final decisions.
Clemson will be the first ACC champion to appear in the Orange Bowl – the ACC champion’s traditional home – since the 2012 season. Under Dantonio, Michigan State has compiled a 29-12 record (.707) in November, December and January.
It was perhaps the most lopsided outing of the bowl season … and the Tigers didn’t even have Deshaun Watson at quarterback.
Top-ranked Clemson will play #4 Oklahoma in the other semi-final game at the Orange Bowl.
In the end, the only real debate was how to rank the top four teams. In addition, the Spartans are 6-1 against AP Top 10 teams since 2013 (also beat No. 4 Wisconsin in 2011) and 3-0 in 2015.
Alcorn State clinched its invite by winning the SWAC championship Saturday, 49-21 over Grambling State. “Clearly Clemson’s No. 1”.
Looking back to the previous rankings from this year, we saw teams such as LSU, Notre Dame, Iowa, and the reigning National Champion Ohio State fall out of the top four. It marked MSU’s 14th Top 10 finish in the history of the AP Poll.
Advertisement
Mayfield will be challenged by Clemson’s defense, which ranks seventh nationally.
