Final Four set for playoffs; Gophers to play in bowl game

■ No. 3 Michigan State (12-1) vs. No. 6 Stanford (11-2). Hail hog helped Alabama get here. North Carolina might have actually beaten Clemson if officials had not blown an offside call in the ACC Championship Game.

Not sure how rewarding it is to have to play Alabama in the semifinals, but Oklahoma avoided playing the most talented team in the playoff.

A day after the Michigan State football team was tabbed as one of four teams to play for a national championship in the College Football Playoff, the Michigan State basketball team was the new No. 1 team in the country when the latest AP poll was released Monday morning.

Cook eventually had to make one big throw – the type of play he’s made all season but had proved elusive on this night.

Committee chairman Jeff Long said that the Tigers were the clear-cut top team in the final rankings. For the fifth time in the last seven years, Alabama is in the postseason with a chance to win the national championship. With all of the top teams winning, there was no surprise of the four participants.

The Bearcats-before the Sugar Bowl embarrassment-probably had the strongest résumé of the three as winners of the albeit-weakened Big East. Boise State had the best win of the bunch, beating OR in the season opener 19-8 in Chip Kelly’s first game as coach. 1 quarter? 2? Thats IF they can stop Derrick Henry. But Alabama is fast, too, and more disciplined, and won’t mess it up two years in a row.

Iowa’s only loss came to Michigan State, 16-13, after the Spartans’ scored the game-winning touchdown with 27 seconds left in the Big Ten Championship game. Nick Saban’s teams have had a lot more success against power-running, pro-style offenses over the years and that is exactly what the Spartans will bring to the table. “If we’ve got to go 30, we’re going to go 30”.

OSU has met Ole Miss twice in history and both times in the Cotton Bowl. DeShaun Watson is dynamic and the Tigers can score from virtually anywhere on the field. Oklahoma’s balance? Its dual-threat quarterback? “The Cardinal’s 38-36 loss to OR on November 14 might be the only thing preventing them from reaching the playoff”. Mayfield averages over 42 points per game, and Oklahoma is the third-best scoring offense in the nation.

“I just know this year is a part of the process where you have these teams in Stanford and Iowa and Ohio State that you could make a case could be in a playoff, and it would be a phenomenal playoff”. Heck, I even remember muttering to myself after that last touchdown that the Spartans’ hopes for a meaningful bowl game were down the drain.

“That’s the way we try to play, and that’s the way they try to play”. They seem to embrace adversity and delight in being the underdog. Another time (2013), they’d have a very tough choice picking between two SEC teams or the Big 12 victor, while the other two were relatively drama-free.

They’ll be facing the No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners in the semi finals.

There was nothing complicated about what went wrong in Dallas.

The Sooners had TCU on the ropes in the first half of their game a couple of weeks ago, but lost starting quarterback Baker Mayfield to concussion symptoms in the second half.

Alabama, which won its second consecutive SEC championship Saturday with a 29-15 win over against Florida, finished No. 2 in the committee’s final rankings.

Clemson’s talented defensive line and improving offensive line will test the Sooners’ toughness the way Texas did.