No discontent this in year 4-team playoff

This new system put football experts into a room Sunday morning after Saturday’s conference playoff games and allowed them to sift through a variety of criteria and argue the relative merits of teams.

Michigan State’s Montae Nicholson (9) and Shane Jones (49) celebrate after Michigan State defeated Iowa 16-13 to win the Big Ten championship NCAA college football game Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015, in Indianapolis.

Matching up these two teams pits Michigan State against its former head football coach. No disrespect to Clemson but I think the committee moves Oklahoma to fourth so that Alabama and Oklahoma don’t play in one of the semifinals. If you included those teams, you would have effectively rendered the Big Ten title game irrelevant.

Eleven days later, the two winners will meet to decide this year’s national champion in the College Football Playoff National Championship at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on January 11th.

Did you know? Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio was an assistant for the Spartans under current Alabama coach Nick Saban. It’s something he has stressed to his players as they prepare for Oklahoma.

It doesn’t seem likely Oklahoma could get into the top two after being third last week.

Though the Playoff selection committee ranked Oklahoma No. 4, committee chairman Jeff Long said at least some committee members felt like the Sooners “could be the No. 1 team in the country”.

It probably came as a shock to no one when the Clemson Tigers – who had enjoyed their position at the top of the CFP rankings for the last five weeks – came in at the No. 1 spot after capturing the ACC title over the weekend. Michigan State knocked off previously undefeated Iowa to claim the Big 10 championship. The Buckeyes won that game, and eventually won the national championship.

“We’re going to play on edge”, Dantonio said. In the conference championship game, he was a menace, recording three tackles for loss, including a pair of sacks, and forcing a fumble.

“It’s really hard to out-Alabama Alabama”, Haney said. 1 quarter? 2? Thats IF they can stop Derrick Henry.

-LB Reggie Ragland is the man in the middle for Alabama. “If you’re good enough to win, you’re gonna have to play, you know, the next best team that won the next game, so you’re not avoiding anybody once you get in this situation”. Ragland leads Alabama with 90 tackles. Scott punted six times for a 51.2-yard average against Florida. For what it’s worth, there are multiple intangibles going into this game that could slightly ease the anxiety of Tiger fans. It’s also a different team with new stars too. He’ll have the same responsibilities in this one. Congratulations to first-year coach Mike Riley, who will add a bowl game to his coaching resume after leading the once-mighty Cornhuskers to their third losing season since 1961.

With considerably less fanfare and controversy than was encountered in its debut one season ago, the College Football Playoff committee revealed its selection of the four teams that will be battling for the 2016 National Championship.

To fix its Ole Miss problem, Alabama got some help from Arkansas, which need a stunning bounce-pass lateral play to beat the Rebels in overtime and clear a path for the Tide to win the SEC.

The Spartans (9-0) replace Kentucky, which dropped three spots to No. 4 in the new Top 25 after a loss at UCLA. “And certainly going to be a huge challenge for us to play against a great quarterback like Connor Cook, and we’re certainly looking forward to coming to Cotton Bowl”.