Sooners get Clemson in opening playoff game

Any cause for jitters among those gathered was erased when Oklahoma received the No. 4 seed and a meeting with No. 1 Clemson in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Eve.

Everyone from Las Vegas to Bristol, Conn., seems to think Alabama is a lock to win the Cotton Bowl semifinal and advance to the national championship game, but nothing is guaranteed at this level. In that 2011 game, when the SEC was at the height of its world supremacy, the Crimson Tide demolished the Spartans, 49-7.

For a second straight season, Alabama secured a spot in the College Football Playoffs.

A decade before winning three national championships at Alabama, Nick Saban was the coach at Michigan State and Mark Dantonio was one of his assistants. Both teams were flawed, but at times looked to be among the best in the country.

The 13-member selection committee selects and seeds the four playoff teams.

All that is left to make it a clean sweep for over the teams that laid the heavy wood against OU a year ago would be to avenge the 40-6 humiliation suffered at the hands of Clemson in the Russell Athletic Bowl.

The Tigers (13-0), seeking their first national title since 1981, will face No. 4 Oklahoma (11-1) on December 31 in a CFP semifinal in the Orange Bowl. Officials tell news that the College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T will be January 11 in Glendale, Arizona at the University of Phoenix Stadium. But the Big 12 had to be happy just to get a spot after last season’s decision to leave Texas Christian out of the field.

The majority of the Football Bowl Subdivision moves into the postseason.

The Spartans were 19-27 those four seasons, and turned to Saban, Perles’ former defensive coordinator, in 1995. Will the time off allow many of Notre Dame’s injured stars to return to the lineup?

If anything, this year’s marquee consolation games like Ohio State-Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl have only strengthened the cry for a bigger playoff – a progression widely seen as inevitable. Rutgers earned a victory over North Carolina in the inaugural Quick Lane Bowl last season. Of course the national semifinal holds a bit more intrigue than the rest of the Big Ten playing for bragging rights and consolation prizes.

Cotton Bowl – No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 3 Michigan State.

Baylor was fifth and TCU dropped from third to sixth.

While most were in agreement of the four teams chosen for the playoff, there has been some argument that either No. 5 Iowa, whose only loss was a last-minute loss to No. 3 Michigan State, or No. 6 Stanford, who won the Pac-12 against a tough schedule, was more deserving than Oklahoma.

April 23, 2013 – The College Football Playoff is announced as the name of the new system to replace the BCS.

“The Spartans are in because after being kept out of the end zone the entire game, they finally reached it thanks to a little finesse, one terrific throw and catch — and a whole lot of brute force”.

There could be a few changes near the top of the AP poll following Saturday night’s conference title games.

The Spartans definitely benefited from an appearance in the Big Ten championship game while Oklahoma was sidelined.

Long said bumping Michigan State past Oklahoma had nothing to do with avoiding the possibility of having the Sooners play close to home in the Dallas area.

For all of the talk about the league’s two best quarterbacks going head-to-head and the proficient offenses, this game had a decidedly old-school flavor.