Football Playoff Committee picks ‘Bama, Washington, Ohio State, Clemson

Clemson held on to win the Atlantic Coast Conference championship by beating Virginia Tech, 42-35. The No. 3 Buckeyes will play the No. 2 ranked Clemson Tigers in their first playoff game.

Additionally, the Big 12 faces another obstacle – playing a round-robin schedule that will require a rematch in the conference championship game, increasing the potential that the higher-rated team could suffer a loss that would keep it out of the playoff.

Critics will point out that Penn State beat Ohio State on the field.

Mississippi State takes on Miami of OH in the St. Petersburg Bowl on December 26.

The Nittany Lions should be secure in the knowledge that they are one of the nation’s best teams, capable of challenging for the top prize. He is averaging just under 45 rushing yards a game during his college career with a solid average of 4.6 yards per carry.

Head coach Nick Saban and his staff demand perfection from his team and it shows.

Hocutt acknowledged there was some concern over the strength of Washington’s schedule, but said that the Huskies’ quality wins were enough to remove any doubt. Alabama and Washington square off in the the other semifinal, the Peach Bowl, and the two winners play for the national title on January 9. The Tigers will play Ohio Sate in the Playstation Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Eve this year. That game started a stretch of three trips in four years to the desert, each of which ended with a Buckeyes victory.

Some Penn Staters will feel they got snubbed, but maybe in time they’ll see that a trip to Pasadena can be better than a date with Alabama. MI was No. 6, likely now bound for the Orange Bowl. Dick Butkus presented the bronze trophy to Foster at the Crimson Tide’s team banquet Sunday. The 15-win watch is back. He quipped that several coaches got sick afterward because they won the rivalry game and were out on the recruiting trail the next day.

In fact, the conference chose to bring back the championship game in part because Navigate Research gave the Big 12 a presentation that indicated a 13th data point would increase the odds of making the playoffs by 14 percent.

Barrett, a Big Ten MVP candidate, has completed 61.8 percent of his passes for 2,428 yards and 24 touchdowns and has run for 847 yards and nine touchdowns on 194 carries. If the Crimson Tide beat the Huskies, Alabama’s title odds would rise to 62 percent; if Washington pulls the upset, the CFP championship would basically be a coin flip no matter who wins in Clemson-OSU.

It wouldn’t be Selection Sunday without a gripe from someone.

For the first time in 25 years, the Huskies are a bona fide national-championship contender.

There were a lot of factors that went into Ohio State being one of the four teams selected for the College Football Playoff and probably just as many in Big Ten champion Penn State being left out. However, they have wins over the likes of Oklahoma, Wisconsin and MI, which was enough to get them in the field.

It was at the hospital that Meyer and his family celebrated not only Troy’s birth, but also, Ohio State’s berth into the College Football Playoff. A few already know.

The conference championships have been handed out and the committee has met to decide who will be in the third edition of the College Football Playoff. On Friday, the Bahamas Bowl revealed Eastern Michigan (7-5) and Old Dominion (9-3) are this year’s matchup there. Its members broke the 2-year-old CFP mold when it needed to, but maintained the one dynamic that has to be central to their deliberations: pick the four best teams. That pairing was finalized Saturday.