No. 3 MSU to face Alabama in Cotton Bowl in semifinal

Michigan State has the longest odds of making the College Football Playoff championship game as well as winning it, according to the “FiveThrtyEight” analysts website.

Alabama’s Nick Saban was the coach at Michigan State from 1995-1999 before leaving for LSU, the Miami Dolphins and moving on to Tuscaloosa in 2007.

Although Michigan State’s rushing offense is in the middle of the pack, the Spartans ran 17 times in their game-winning 22-play touchdown drive that knocked off unbeaten Iowa in Saturday night’s Big Ten title game. Instead, the Crimson Tide gets to face Michigan State, while the Sooners head to South Beach to take on top-ranked Clemson in the Orange Bowl.

Let’s hope the semifinals and championship game offer more drama than Sunday’s ranking revelation. SEC victor Alabama plays the Big Ten champion Spartans in what will likely be a bruising College Football Playoff semifinal between two 12-1 teams at the Cotton Bowl.

Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts.

The Spartans (12-1) moved past Oklahoma, which finished No. 4 and will play No. 1 Clemson in the Orange Bowl.

Alabama is the only repeat performer from last season’s inaugural playoff, which followed the sport’s 16-year marriage to a Bowl Championship Series title game.

The Bulldogs hired Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart on Sunday, hoping he can accomplish what has been routine for the Crimson Tide but eluded Mark Richt during his 15 years between the hedges: Win a national title.

The Georgia athletic association executive committee approved the hiring of Smart, the Tide’s defensive coordinator since 2008.

That, of course, would have put his sixth-ranked team in this year’s rotation.

Houston won the first American Athletic Conference championship game, beating Temple 24-13 at home to all but lock up the spot in the New Year’s Six bowls that goes to the highest-ranked champion from outside the Power Five conferences.

Stanford didn’t have to open the season at Northwestern, which turned out to be 10-2, but it did.

“Last year’s game with Oklahoma has nothing to do with this year’s game”. The Cotton Bowl will feature No. 2 Alabama taking on No. 4 Michigan State with the victor advancing to the NCAA finals. Committee chairman Jeff Long said last week the rankings would not be manipulated to avoid putting Oklahoma in the nearby Dallas-area as a lower-seeded team.

Michigan State has won its four bowl games since, including last New Year’s Day when they overcame a 20-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat Baylor 42-41 in their first Cotton Bowl.

Still, in a season that provided one invincible individual performance after another – Alabama tailback Derrick Henry’s running game, Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds’ scoring game, Stanford tailback Christian McCaffrey’s everything game – the quartet of teams that will play on New Year’s Eve is as vincible a bunch as ever made a postseason.

The winners will meet on Monday, Jan. 11 in the national championship game in Glendale, Arizona.

Michigan State wouldn’t be here without that insane punt fumble by Michigan.

Ultimately it appeared that the lack of a conference championship game hurt the Big 12 in 2014.

SORE SHOULDER: Spartans quarterback Connor Cook became the first two-time MVP of the Big Ten title game, even playing with a sore shoulder that now has time to recover. They are a different team.

And you’d still have No. 9 Florida State and No. 10 North Carolina, two-loss teams just like Notre Dame, howling over perceived injustice.