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Even after Southern California’s loss to Utah made things unnecessarily complicated, the College Football Playoff selection committee has rarely had things so easy.
With Ohio State ready to step in for USC, the committee simply had to bump the Buckeyes one spot to complete a very interesting four-team mix.
No. 1 Georgia will be the home team against No. 4 OSU in the Peach Bowl. Held in the Bulldogs‘ backyard, this matchup will pit the two teams that ranked atop the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll for most of the regular season.
No. 2 Michigan will host No. 3 TCU in the Fiesta Bowl. Even after losing in overtime to No. 9 Kansas State, the Horned Frogs remained the third seed and avoided a very intimidating matchup against Georgia. Not that Michigan will be much easier — the Wolverines are rolling into the postseason with a second Big Ten championship in a row.
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Just outside the top four came No. 5 Alabama and No. 6 Tennessee, as the committee continued to ignore the Volunteers‘ head-to-head win against the Crimson Tide earlier this season.
Both teams will land in a strong slate of New Year’s Six bowls:
The Volunteers and No. 7 Clemson will meet in a very orange Orange Bowl;
The Sugar Bowl will pair Alabama and Kansas State;
No. 10 USC will draw the best team in the Group of Five, No. 16 Tulane, in the Cotton Bowl;
No. 8 Utah will represent the Pac-12 and No. 11 Penn State the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl.
Despite having a very unconvincing argument for making the top four ahead of the Buckeyes, the Tide are the biggest losers from an easy selection Sunday:WinnersOhio State
As a gift for making the playoff, OSU gets to face off with the defending national champions — an opponent that does what Michigan does, only better. Last time we saw the Buckeyes, they were getting stampeded by the Wolverines‘ physical style; the Bulldogs might do the same and then some. But there’s a pretty good track record among the previous three teams that backdoored into playoff:
2016 Ohio State was blanked by Clemson 31-0 in the Fiesta Bowl;
2017 Alabama beat Clemson 24-6 in the Sugar Bowl and then topped Georgia 26-23 in overtime in the championship game;
And last year’s Bulldogs lost the SEC championship game to Alabama before beating Michigan 34-11 in the Orange and defeating the Crimson Tide 33-18 in the rematch.
