The identity of the four teams in the College Football Playoff became clear after Saturday’s conference championship games.
The drama was all about which team would be No. 1.
The CFP selection committee pulled a final-week switch, with LSU moving to the top spot while Ohio State dropped to No. 2, setting the Dec. 28 semifinals like this:
No. 1 LSU against No. 4 Oklahoma in the Peach Bowl (4 p.m. ET), and No. 2 Ohio State against No. 3 Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl at 8 p.m. ET.
“It was really close,” selection committee chairman Rob Mullens said on the ESPN Selection Show, talking about choosing between LSU and Ohio State for No. 1. “We’ve spent the entire ranking season going one above the other, one above the other, just by a tick.
“The key elements this week was we saw an LSU defense that’s healthy,” he added. “And an impressive win over a Georgia team that was No. 4 last week.”
LSU, Ohio State and Clemson — all undefeated — won their conference title games. LSU dominated Georgia in the SEC, and Clemson smashed Virginia for the ACC title. Ohio State imposed its will on Wisconsin with a 27-0 second half — but that followed a 21-7 deficit in the first half in the Big Ten title game.
Previously fifth-ranked Utah’s loss to Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game on Friday night opened a clear playoff path for the winner of the Big 12 title game, which was Oklahoma in a 30-23 overtime thriller against Baylor.
“There’s a lot of different scenarios, things at play,” Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said of the playoff process on the ESPN Selection Show.
The Sooners are in their third consecutive semifinal and fourth in the last five years, but they seek their first-ever playoff win.
“You learn over the years, things we need to do in terms of preparation,” Riley said.
Being No. 1 was a big deal because that team gets to take on 12-1 Oklahoma, rather than Clemson.
But neither of the head coaches of LSU and Ohio State showed any concern for his team’s seeding.
“Wherever they tell us to play, we’re going to show up. We’re going to be ready,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron said.
Dropping to No. 2 sets up Ohio State for a rematch with reigning national champion Clemson. The teams will meet at the same location as the site of Clemson’s 31-0 deconstruction of the Buckeyes in the 2016 season’s semifinals — State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
“We knew if we were going to win the whole thing, we were going to have to play everybody, play the best, whether it was LSU, Oklahoma or Clemson,” first-year Ohio State coach Ryan Day said.
The 2016 Ohio State team under then-coach Urban Meyer landed in the semifinal despite failing to win the Big Ten. This year’s Buckeyes are the first Big Ten champions to gain a playoff berth since Michigan State in 2015.
The Buckeyes will also aim to become the first Big Ten team to score in the playoff since Ohio State’s national championship win over Oregon to cap the 2014 season. Michigan State in 2015 and Ohio State in 2016 were blanked in their semifinal losses.
Although the seeding did not appear to matter much to Orgeron or Day, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney described the Tigers’ No. 3 positioning as a slight for motivation.
“Everybody loves a challenge,” Swinney said. “You’re always looking for little things along the way (to motivate the team). Free fuel. When you’re going across the country, free fuel’s good. Gas is expensive.”
With 28 consecutive wins, Clemson has not lost a game since the falling to Alabama in the 2017 season’s national semifinals, but the Tigers’ 13-0 run through the 2019 regular season came without a single win against an opponent ranked in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll.
The national championship game will be played on Monday, Jan. 13 (8 p.m. ET) in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.
This is the first appearance in the College Football Playoff for LSU. Clemson is making its fifth consecutive appearance after missing the first playoff in the 2014 season. Oklahoma is making its fourth appearance — third in a row. Ohio State advanced for the third time.
The other New Year’s Six bowls also were revealed Sunday:
–Cotton (Dec. 28): No. 10 Penn State vs. No. 17 Memphis
–Orange (Dec. 30): No. 9 Florida vs. No. 24 Virginia
–Rose (Jan. 1): No. 6 Oregon vs. No. 8 Wisconsin
–Sugar (Jan. 1): No. 5 Georgia vs. No. 7 Baylor
Memphis advanced as the highest-ranked team from the Group of Five conferences (American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, Sun Belt).
