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Our conference champions are set for this college football season are set and the final College Football Playoff picture has come into full focus. On Sunday morning, the CFP selection committee unveiled its final rankings and set the official 12-team bracket in stone.
Boise State locked in its automatic bid with a convincing win over UNLV on the blue turf on Friday night. Arizona State opened the Saturday slate with a dominant win over Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship Game. Georgia beat Texas for a first-round bye in Atlanta before Oregon outscored Penn State in a Big Ten title game shootout to secure the top seed in the bracket.
To cap off the night, Dabo Swinney and Clemson extinguished a furious SMU comeback with a 56-yard field goal at the buzzer to secure the ACC title and earn a spot in the bracket. Following a valiant effort in defeat, the discussion raged through Saturday night and into Sunday morning whether Rhett Lashlee and the Mustangs deserved the final at-large spot over 9-3 Alabama.
The committee had to wrestle with that at the debate table as well as where to rank Texas and Penn State, who both picked up a second loss on championship weekend. Here is the final College Football Playoff bracket, listed by seed.
- Oregon (13-0)
- Georgia (11-2)
- Boise State (12-1)
- Arizona State (11-2)
- Texas (11-2)
- Penn State (11-2)
- Notre Dame (11-1)
- Ohio State (10-2)
- Tennesse (10-2)
- Indiana (11-1)
- SMU (11-2)
- Clemson (10-3)
The major domino that everyone was waiting to see was whether the committee would drop SMU out of the CFP top 12 after a close loss in the ACC Championship Game while Alabama had the weekend off. As it turns out, the loss dropped SMU down a couple of spots, but it didn't knock the Mustangs out of the field entirely. Instead, it was the Crimson Tide who got the short end of the stick due to Clemson's heroics on Saturday night.
The first round of the CFP, which will take place on Dec. 20 and 21, will feature four blockbuster matchups that will be played on home campuses. On Friday, Dec. 20, Notre Dame will host Indiana in South Bend. Then, Penn State will host SMU and Texas will host Clemson on Dec. 21 before Tennessee travels to Columbus to take on Ohio State to cap off the first round.
Oregon (Rose Bowl), Georgia (Sugar Bowl), Boise State (Fiesta Bowl) and Arizona State (Peach Bowl) await the winners on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in the quarterfinals.
