College Football Playoff field set

USC will make its record 34th appearance in the Rose Bowl, far more than any other team. However, they did not win the stacked Big Ten East and did not even qualify for the conference championship.

This time, it batted.750.

This and more is what the College Football Playoff selection committee sorts through to pick the four best teams in the country.

While there’s not much argument for Alabama and Clemson, the tricky situation came with Ohio State and Washington. Ohio State lost to Penn State.

The first two are self-explanatory. Ohio State is also 21st nationally in total offense behind a Top 10 ground game – ninth at 258.3 yards per game – and the fifth highest possession time: 33:55. The Buckeyes have intercepted 19 passes this season, tied for third most in the country, and it’s hard to see Ohio State winning this game if the Buckeyes don’t take the ball away and create some short fields for the offense.

That leaves three contenders and one musical chair.

“Had Washington had a stronger strength of schedule”, Hocutt said, “I don’t think the conversation would have been as hard”.

The Huskies’ only loss was to Southern California and its nonconference schedule featured FCS Portland State, Rutgers and Idaho. MI remaining a Top Six team means it faces Florida State in the Orange Bowl. The Big 12 champions beat West Virginia and Oklahoma State by a combined 46 points in its final two games.

Unfortunately, it ignored, or discounted, the Whitman’s sampler that Washington consumed in September. For the conferences who play an actual title game, that’s a 13th game against a quality opponent.

The conference title, or lack of one?

Coach Clay Helton’s Trojans have won eight games in a row, capped by back-to-back victories over top rivals UCLA and Notre Dame.

Alabama has ended the regular season at No. 1 in the AP Top 25.

Ten of Washington’s 12 victories were by 24 points or more.

Led by dynamic quarterback Deshaun Watson, Clemson lost to Alabama in the national championship game last season in Arizona. Petersen makes good players great ones.

The playoff debate between those three teams was as intense as ever.

Oklahoma had the same case Penn State did and almost the same case Washington did.

Sorry, Penn State, but more losses, fewer quality wins and a weaker schedule than Ohio State isn’t going to cut it. Keep arguing if you want, but the CFP selection committee got it right.

So the criteria gets blurry when viewed by different eyes. The Big Ten has four teams playing in New Year’s Day Six Bowls. “There are a lot of guys in there that have been here for a while – not a lot of them – but there are some and their commitment and persistence and focus, I think it’s spectacular”. The Nittany Lions beat Ohio State and won the strongest conference in college football this year.

In a college football season filled with tons of drama, the last weekend of play certainly lacked the craziness the rest of the season was filled with. The twists of a typical October or November Saturday are irresistible. “That’s all that mattered to me is that we were one of them”, Swinney said.

Danny Kanell, a college football analyst for ESPN, thought the College Football Playoff field should be: Alabama, Clemson, Washington and Penn State.