Clemson has been competitive of late but has claimed only one national title, for the 1981 season – which was also the last time, before this season, that it was ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press poll.
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Dantonio has spent the last nine seasons as the Spartans’ head coach, winning three Big Ten titles including this season’s crown following a 16-13 win over previous No. 4 Iowa on Saturday, after previously serving as MSU’s defensive backs coach for six seasons (1995-2000), the first five serving under Saban.
Michael Geiger got the scoring started just a few minutes into the first quarter when he hit a 23 yard field goal to give Michigan State the first lead of the game.
No. 1 Clemson vs. No. 4 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, for the right to be measured against the Crimson Tide.
Michigan State and Iowa traded punts on their next two possessions to set up the Spartans’ final drive, reportedly the longest in the nation, among Football Bowl Subdivision teams in terms of the number of plays, this season.
The winners of those two semifinals meet January 11 in Glendale, Ariz., for the national title.
“As a senior class, this is where we wanted to go since we were freshmen”, Allen said.
There were no dark circles under the eyes of committee Chair Jeff Long as he emerged from a Dallas meeting room to announce Clemson, Alabama, Michigan State and Oklahoma as the four playoff teams.
Clemson may be the top overall seed in the upcoming College Football Playoff, but according to ESPN’s FiveThirtyEight, the Tigers are not the favorite to hoist the championship trophy. They wound up promoting Michigan State to the third position, after the Spartans knocked off unbeaten Iowa in the Big Ten championship game, and dropped the Sooners one spot to fourth.
But no team has been to the Orange Bowl more than Oklahoma.
“I promise you we will need to be at our best”, Dantonio said.
Just think: If college football went to an eight-team playoff, there would be even more wiggle room when it comes to getting fearless teams into the field. This time, after months of arguing, there is no controversy.
And that brings us to the championship game, presuming it’s Alabama vs. Clemson. The last three columns are merely for reference. “Looking through the season, the one thing we’ve heard is, it’s a lot of luck”.
The Tigers tried to ease Deshaun Watson into the 2015 season. The Sooners can now put an exclamation point on their revenge tour by adding a victory over Clemson. Both teams have stellar pass rushers and productive running backs.
Also on January 1, the Sugar Bowl will match MS against Oklahoma State and the Fiesta Bowl has Notre Dame against Ohio State.
So have ‘Bama and Michigan State. Alabama has one of the best defensive fronts in recent history.
Ring in the new year with champagne and … that gleeful party animal Nick Saban?
That was an embarrassing end to the Spartans’ first really good season under coach Mark Dantonio. MSU is 11-14 overall in bowl games. But Oklahoma slipping suggests that an extra data point could be hurting the Big 12, which can’t stage a championship game at the moment with 10 teams and plays a round-robin schedule. They finish their regular season with three significant wins over Notre Dame, Florida State, and North Carolina in the ACC Championship. The Sooners have won their games since the Texas loss by an average 32 points. Both teams fell short of the playoff, but this is an excellent matchup.
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Because the committee had released preliminary rankings each Tuesday for the past several weeks, expectations for the final four were in place, and Saturday’s results – the favoured team won in all four of the major conference championship games – all but ended the mystery of which four teams would qualify Sunday.
