College Football Playoff Field Set (2017)

The four team College Football Playoff is set, with two teams from the SEC and the Big Ten and Pacific-12 not represented.

Clemson (12-1) secured its place as the #1 seed by smoking Miami 38-3 in the ACC Championship.

Oklahoma (11-1) took down TCU 41-17 in the Big 12 title game, and is the #2 seed. Georgia (12-1) took the #3 seed by beating Auburn 28-7 for the SEC crown, avenging an earlier 40-7 loss to the Tigers. The fourth seed went to Alabama (11-1). The Crimson Tide lost to Auburn in the regular season finale, and did not play in a conference championship game. In the CFP semifinals, Georgia and Oklahoma will play in the Rose Bowl while Clemson and Alabama will battle it out in the Sugar Bowl, in a rematch of last season’s championship game. This season’s championship game is Monday January 8th.

Missing out is Ohio State (11-2). The Buckeyes were fifth in the poll despite beating previously unbeaten Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game. OSU lost to Oklahoma early in the season, which probably didn’t hurt, but also lost 54-24 to Iowa. The Hawkeyes were 7-5 this year, which isn’t bad but they finished the regular season unranked. That didn’t help. Ohio State will play USC (11-2) in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl. USC, winners of the Pacific-12, were also left out. Wisconsin (12-1) will play Miami (10-2) in the Capital One Orange Bowl, in what is essentially a home game for Miami. The last remaining unbeaten Division I school, Central Florida (12-0) will play Auburn (10-3) in the Chick-Fil-A Peach bowl UCF finished 12th in the CFP poll, probably due to strength of schedule, just like Western Michigan last year.

With only four slots available, there are always complaints that some deserving team gets left out. For starters, even if there was only one team from each of the Power Five conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) was selected, one of the Power Five would not be represented. This year, its two, which may not be the best thing for college football in terms of nation wide interest. One solution could be to expand the field to eight teams; the winners of the Power Five conferences, plus three at large teams. The semi-finals could be played either the week after the conference championships, or a week after that. The eventual finalists would have to play a 15th game, but the NCAA Division III schools already do that in their tournament.