What Impact Will The College Football Playoff Have On Las Vegas Books?

College football’s selection Sunday was so clean, Larry David could not have complained.

A four-team structure customized for angst and argument produced virtually none Sunday, as the selection committee followed the script and put four league champions – Clemson, Alabama, Michigan State and Oklahoma – into the national semifinals.

The Crimson Tide will be making its eighth straight New Year’s bowl appearance under Nick Saban.

Interestingly, Silver’s model makes Oklahoma a heavy favorite over top-seeded Clemson, giving Oklahoma a 66% chance to win their semifinal matchup.

“We don’t even think about an eight-team playoff”, he said.

Oklahoma has been rolling since an October loss to Texas.

On Saban’s staff in East Lansing as a defensive backs coach was Mark Dantonio, now the Michigan State coach, trying to bring the Spartans their first national title since it finished first in the coaches’ poll in 1965. Sadly, the Re-rank has officially selected the worst team of the 2015 college football season: Central Florida, which went 0-12, takes home the dishonor of being No. 128.

The Spartans (12-1) provided plenty of drama on Championship Saturday, with an epic game-winning drive to beat Iowa 16-13 in an old-school Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis that was only missing leather helmets. The Tigers and Sooners (11-1) met in the Russell Athletic Bowl last season and Clemson won, 40-6. It would have happened in the first two years of the four-team playoff: No champion would’ve been left out because they all deserve to be there.

“Getting in is one thing, which maybe we were a little bit too happy with a year ago”, Saban said to the camera during the selection show, wearing a loose sweater and the tightest smile.

Michigan State has won four straight games since losing to Nebraska Nov. 7 and dropping from No. 7 to No. 13 in the Playoff rankings. “Alabama’s rush defense is the best in the country, and Michigan State’s is seventh”. “You could see Alabama being No. 1 or whatever”. No. 2 Alabama will play No. 3 Michigan State at the Cotton Bowl in the nightcap of the December 31 doubleheader.

“It was really a function of what Michigan State did in their 13th game”, Long said.

The winners will play for the national championship on January 11 in Glendale, Arizona. He led the Spartans over Stanford in the 2014 Rose Bowl, and in one of the biggest comebacks in bowl history, MSU rallied from 20 down in the 4th quarter to beat Baylor 42-41 in the 2015 Cotton Bowl. Stanford moved up two spots to No. 5 after winning the Pac-12 title and Iowa dropped two spots to sixth after its first loss of the season. Notre Dame (10-2) fought through a slew of injuries to finish four points shy of a ideal record.

Going into the game, Iowa was No. 4 in the College Football Ranking, with Michigan State No. 5.