The first 12-team College Football Playoff will include SMU but not Alabama.
The Crimson Tide were the first team out of the field when the selection committee released its final ranking Sunday, setting the bracket for the first expansive, pro-style playoff in the history of major college football: four rounds, 11 games over one month.
Unbeaten Oregon of the Big Ten will be the No. 1 seed, followed by SEC champion Georgia at No. 2, Mountain West champion Boise State at No. 3 and Big 12 champion Arizona State at No. 4. They will all receive first-round byes to quarterfinals that will be played in traditional bowl games on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.
The first-round games played at campus sites on Dec. 20-21 will be:
No. 5 Texas versus No. 12 Clemson, which earned its bid by winning the ACC on a walk-off 56-yard field goal Saturday night. The winner goes on to face Arizona State in the Peach Bowl.
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No. 6 Penn State versus No. 11 SMU, which slipped in as the final at-large selection ahead of the Crimson Tide even after its heartbreaking loss to Clemson. The winner will face Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.
No. 7 Notre Dame versus No. 10 Indiana in an infrequently played in-state battle. The winner goes on to face Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.
No. 8 Ohio State versus No. 9 Tennessee in an SEC-Big Ten matchup. The winner plays Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
After conference championship games were played Friday and Saturday, the only drama that remained for selection Sunday was between Alabama and SMU.
In one corner, the mighty Crimson Tide, with 13 national championships, six since 2009. In the other, the Mustangs, who needed almost four decades to work their way back from the NCAA death penalty to playing power conference football.
After losing 34-31 to Clemson on a last-second field goal in Saturday night’s ACC Championship Game, the Mustangs (11-2) ended up being ranked 10th in the committee’s final Top 25, two spots lower than they were coming into the weekend but one ahead of the Crimson Tide and good enough to grab the final of seven at-large bids.
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Alabama was ranked higher than No. 12 Arizona State and No. 16 Clemson, but those teams earned their way into the field by winning their conferences.
Alabama (9-3) touted its strength of schedule that included three victories against teams the committee ranked, including SEC champion Georgia. The Crimson Tide also lost twice to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, neither of which broke .500, in their first season since legendary coach Nick Saban’s retirement.
SMU didn’t beat any teams ranked by the committee, but the Mustangs’ only losses were by a combined five points to BYU and Clemson, with a combined record of 20-5.
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A year after Alabama bumped unbeaten Florida State out of the final version of the four-team CFP, the ACC got the benefit of the doubt over coach Kalen DeBoer’s Tide.
The Big Ten put four teams in the field (Oregon, Penn State, Ohio State and Indiana), the SEC three (Georgia, Texas and Tennessee) and the ACC two (Clemson and SMU). The Big 12 was the only Power 4 conference that ended up being a one-bid league.
