College Football Playoff and Bowl Games Set

With the completion of college football conference championship games, the teams have been selected for the four team College Football Playoff to determine the national champion. The other post season bowl game field has been set as well.

Top ranked Alabama rallied to beat Georgia 35-28 in the SEC championship. The Crimson Tide (13-0) will play #4 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl December 29th, one of this year’s semi final games in the rotating schedule of bowl games as national semifinals. The Sooners (12-1) beat Texas in the Big 12 conference championship 39-27, avenging their only loss of the season. The Longhorns beat Oklahoma 49-45 back on October 6th.

Notre Dame (12-0) is the #3 ranked team, and since the Fighting Irish aren’t in a conference for football, they sat and waited to see who they would play. To the surprise of no one, Clemson (13-0) easily beat Pittsburgh 42-10 in the ACC Conference championship game. Notre Dame will play Clemson on December 29th in the Orange Bowl. The winners will play for the national championship on Monday, January 7th.

There are a ton of other bowl games out there, many of them relatively obscure, beginning with six games on December 15th. There are also some not so obscure ones with some pretty good teams involved. The Rose Bowl will have its traditional pairing of the Big Ten and Pac-12 conference winners, since neither one made it to the CFP. Washington (10-3) will play Ohio State (12-1) on New Year’s Day. Central Florida finished undefeated at 12-0, the second undefeated season in a row for the Knights. Although they will again feel slighted for not getting into the CFP, the fact that they compete in the non-Power Five American Athletic Conference means they have almost no chance to get in as long as it remains a four team championship. The Knights will play LSU (9-3) in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day. Another New Year’s Day game of not is the Sugar Bowl, featuring Texas (9-4) and Georgia (11-2).