Which four teams should make the CFP — ESPN picks

Meyer couldn’t be goaded into defending why Ohio State deserves a Top 4 spot out of respect for the other coaches and players who played their hearts out this season and into the conference championships.

Also starting at 1:00 p.m. ET is the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, which will take place for the 81st time.

This 2016 Fiesta Bowl will actually be the second to go by that designation this year, after a January 2016 matchup between Ohio State and Notre Dame.

The Orange Bowl is December 30.

The College Football Playoff selection committee has spoken, and the semifinal matchups are set.

Temple will face Wake Forest in Annapolis on December 27 at 3:30 p.m. on our sister station ESPN.

“Sometimes you got to be careful what you wish for”, Washington coach Chris Petersen said on ESPN.

Up close and personal, actually.

Despite not playing for the Big Ten championship on Saturday night, the Buckeyes – winners of the first CFP national title in the 2014 season – earned a spot in the four-team field due to their overall resume. Petersen’s response: “Not real well”.

“I feel like I know him, I see him on TV so much”, Petersen said. I’ve talked to him once or twice.

Our feeling is that the eight-team playoff will become a reality in 2020, after the first six years of the 12-year deal are concluded.

Alabama has played Washington four times previously, twice in bowls and not since 1986.

The other national semifinal game is Clemson vs Ohio State in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz.at 7 p.m.

After heavy favorites won a majority of the weekend’s conference championship games, the final CFP rankings were rather predictable. The Lions continued their second-half success, outscoring Wisconsin (9-3, 7-2 Big Ten), 24-3 in the second half.

Alabama was a given after finishing undefeated with a 54-16 mauling of Florida in the SEC championship game yesterday. The Huskies have been pesky on defense forcing 33 turnovers on the season. The Tigers are ninth in total defense, allowing just 313.9 yards per game. The Tigers are hoping to come out on top at University of Phoenix Stadium this time around as they attempt to win their first national title since 1981.

MI is out. Selection committee chairman Kirby Hocutt repeatedly emphasized last week that the margin between No. 4 Washington and No. 5 MI was very close. I had said I think a number of weeks earlier that in the eyes of this selection committee, Ohio State was a better football team than Penn State. That will overwrite that Big Ten championship, the head-to-head against Ohio State and the label of “hottest team in the country”.

Commence debate – the pairings are in, and Penn State and MI are out. There was no 11-2 Penn State. MI would have been in, as well, and paired with Washington in a classic, Rose Bowl-esque matchup. The Sooners didn’t lose a conference game, but they lost nonconference games to Houston and Ohio State; the latter by three touchdowns at home.

But Saban has a peer, a professional equal, a man who can match him X-for-O and stare down the Crimson Tide’s intimidating glare.

The 15-win watch is back. The two that weren’t: a seven-point win at Arizona (a legitimately poor performance) and a seven-point win at a Utah team that is in the final CFP Top 25, according to Hocutt.

– Penn State jumped three spots by winning the Big Ten title game. The Pac-12 has been involved in the playoff two out of the three years, missing out last season. That was in 2009 when Alabama went 14-0 and won the first of his four national titles at the school.

Urban Meyer guided the Utah Utes to a BCS bowl game (and victory). The committee has spoken glowingly about the Buckeyes, who have wins over Oklahoma, Wisconsin and MI, but we have yet to see a team that did not win its conference get into the playoff.

Speaking at a press conference at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center 90 minutes after the Ohio State Buckeyes learned they will play Clemson at 7 p.m. December 31 at the Fiesta Bowl in the national semifinals, Meyer told the story of his long and happy day. Saying that, the selection committee believes that Ohio State has put together one of the best resumes of this college football season. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.

In Year 3, not so easy.

– Which Southeastern Conference team will play in the Sugar Bowl against Oklahoma? Its members broke the 2-year-old CFP mold when it needed to, but maintained the one dynamic that has to be central to their deliberations: pick the four best teams. That pairing was finalized Saturday.