Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Washington In The College Football Playoff
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By: Ryan Mayer
Today's the day. After 14 weeks of college football, the results for every team (save Army-Navy next week) are in. The conference championships have been handed out and the committee has met to decide who will be in the third edition of the College Football Playoff. Without further ado, here are the four teams who will be competing for the national championship trophy.
1) Alabama (13-0)
2) Clemson (12-1)
3) Ohio State (11-1)
4) Washington (12-1)
Alabama was a given after finishing undefeated with a 54-16 mauling of Florida in the SEC championship game yesterday. The Tide have been ranked number one throughout this year's rankings from the committee and after finishing undefeated, they'll stay that way. Due to Alabama's location and their status as the number one team, they will be playing in Atlanta once again in the Chick Fil A Peach Bowl.
Clemson jumps up to the number two spot following their win over Virginia Tech in the ACC championship game. The Tigers will wear their home jerseys for their match-up with the Buckeyes in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl.
Ohio State, the lone non-conference champion in the playoff field gets in due to the strength of its resume. The Buckeyes wins over Michigan, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Nebraska seem to outweigh the last second loss that the Buckeyes suffered at the hands of the Big Ten champion Penn State Nittany Lions.
Washington stays in the number four spot following their 41-10 win in the Pac-12 championship game over Colorado on Friday night. There was plenty of debate about this fourth spot and it was mainly due to the week non-conference schedule for the Huskies, who played Portland State, Idaho and Rutgers in the first few weeks of the season. However, Chris Petersen's squad finished strong and they will face Alabama in the Peach Bowl.
Penn State, following their win in the Big Ten title game, jumped ahead of Michigan into the fifth spot and the Wolverines dropped to sixth. The semifinal games will be played this year on New Year's Eve once again at 3 and 7 p.m. Eastern time.
Ryan Mayer is an Associate Producer for CBS Local Sports. Ryan lives in NY but comes from Philly and life as a Philly sports fan has made him cynical. Anywhere sports are being discussed, that's where you'll find him.