bingewatches

In the first year of the expanded College Football Playoff, there has been a feeling that there is more parity than in recent years. Only one team finished the season undefeated, as Oregon ripped off a 13-0 campaign and a Big Ten title in their first season in the Big Ten. Everyone else in the Big Ten and SEC, the two top conferences in the country, lost at least two games, while just Notre Dame and Boise State managed to finish the season with one loss — Boise’s coming in a close loss to Oregon and Notre Dame’s a shocking home loss to Northern Illinois.

On top of having a huge group of two and three loss teams bunched up, Clemson crashed the party as an automatic qualifier with a 56-yard walkoff field goal against SMU on Saturday night in the ACC Championship game, creating some serious drama regarding who would get the 12th and final spot. Coming into the weekend, that was held by Alabama, but they needed some help as we knew at least one team would jump from the outside into the top 12 (the Big 12 champion). Clemson doing the same meant there was a decision to be made between the Tide and SMU, and a year after an undefeated Florida State got left out of the 4-team playoff in favor of the Tide, no one was quite sure how the Committee would handle things.

As such, there was plenty of tension when it came time for the final College Football Playoff selection show on Sunday. As a reminder of how the bracket works, the 4 highest ranked conference champions earn first round byes, with the next 7 highest ranked teams filling in the 5-12 seeds.

Final CFP Rankings

1. Oregon
2. Georgia
3. Texas
4. Penn State
5. Notre Dame
6. Ohio State
7. Tennessee
8. Indiana
9. Boise State
10. SMU
11. Alabama
12. Arizona State
13. Miami FL
14. Ole Miss
15. South Carolina
16. Clemson

First Round

12. Clemson at 5. Texas (Dec. 21, 4 p.m. ET, TNT/MAX)

9. Tennessee at 8. Ohio State (Dec. 21, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC)

11. SMU at 6. Penn State (Dec. 21, 12 p.m. ET, TNT/MAX)

10. Indiana at 7. Notre Dame (Dec. 20, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC)

Quarterfinals

Winner 5/12 vs. 4. Arizona State (Peach Bowl, Jan. 1, 1 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC)

Winner 8/9 vs. 1. Oregon (Rose Bowl, Jan. 1, 5 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC)

Winner 6/11 vs. 3. Boise State (Fiesta Bowl, Dec. 31, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC)

Winner 7/10 vs. 2. Georgia (Sugar Bowl, Jan. 1, 8:45 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC)