INSIDE THE PLAYOFF: Saban worries about playoff-or-bust

It’s all part of what is now being called the New Year’s Six – this year’s lineup being the Peach Bowl preceding the two semifinal games on December 31, then the Fiesta, Rose and Sugar bowls on January 1.

Top seed Clemson faces No. 4 Oklahoma in the afternoon, followed by No. 2 Alabama against No. 3 Michigan State in the waning hours of 2015.

Why so much angst? Both quarterbacks are great and should provide a lot of excitement.

The clock is ticking toward midnight on New Year’s Eve. I like Sparty and would love to see Dantonio make it to the big game, but I can’t bring myself to say they can win this one. And, of course, there is always the possibility of overtime. Mayfield’s ability to play mistake-free football should be the difference in a competitive, back-and-forth Orange Bowl as the Sooners advance and hand Clemson its first loss.

Clemson’s Quarterback DeShaun Watson has thrown for 3,512 yards, 30 touchdowns and 11 interceptions this season.

A moment, please, before we delve into the future, to let us recognize the dear-departed Bluebonnet Bowl, a middling and largely meaningless contest played in Houston, Texas, during the New Year’s Eves of my childhood. But they would be off on New Year’s Day. “Even if the ratings are 10% lower, that’s still likely to make it the top-rated program of anything on this week”, Billings said.

So, will college football, with its most significant contests airing in primetime, become ingrained in the New Year’s Eve culture, or will the sport’s marquee matchups serve merely as background noise on a night in which many have other plans? And the reasoning given was pretty vague. With the exception of the 1996 season, the game has historically been played on New Year’s Day or shortly thereafter.

“This will change habits”, he said. “It’s a done deal”. But CFP officials didn’t want to switch up the schedule in the first season of New Year’s Eve semifinals.

Many defensive coaches have come to accept this new reality. During the regular season, each Saturday got you a game on CBS and ABC, and then a couple more on ESPN.

So why are these playoff games being played on New Year’s Eve? Nipping previously unbeatens Ohio State and Iowa is one thing, but scraping past Purdue and Rutgers?

It’s New Years Eve, which thanks to the (belated) wisdom of the NCAA means it’s time for the College Football Playoff.

“But with the way it’s going right now and how popular the four team playoff is, at some point down the road I see people trying to expand it”. Now during the game, you’ll have to have another kid taking those routes. So they are committed to advertising in the games this year, whenever they are televised.

Shamburger: This game is actually tougher to pick than I thought it would be. He added that while it won’t do advertisers any good right now if the games under-deliver, one consolation would be that the telecasts over-delivered last season.

Alabama coach Nick Saban is so hard to play against when given the proper amount of time to prepare.

Salt Lake Tribune columnist Scott Pierce, in a recent column writes that ESPN should not be blamed for college football’s stupidity.

Flutie admits that he’s used to seeing the Orange Bowl played under the lights at night, but he remains confident that the game will still be a success. “All other things aren’t equal, though, and I don’t think the Oklahoma vs. Clemson game would’ve done as well as last year’s Oregon/Florida State matchup even if it aired on New Year’s Day”. And there’s a chance the champagne will look more like beer in households where couples will be on the couch and college football will be on the TV.

Besides being a national semifinal game en route to a possible national championship, this year’s Capital One Orange Bowl game is also going to have an affect on the Captial One Cup – a competition between all Division I schools for scholarship money based on championships in all sports. The Sooners get rolling for at least one half.