College Football Playoff: Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, and Ohio State Make Semifinals

The College Football Playoff selection committee has spoken, and the first ever college football semifinals will feature No. 1 Alabama versus No. 4 Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl and No. 2 Oregon versus No. 3 Florida State in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. The winners will play each other in the national championship game at JerryWorld on January 12.

The Sugar Bowl will renew the old Nick Saban-Urban Meyer rivalry, one that featured in consecutive SEC Championship Games in 2009-10.

TCU was third a week ago, but it fell to sixth in this final ranking after smoking Iowa State on Saturday. Committee chair Jeff Long said that "Ohio State demonstrated they were a total team" when asked why the Buckeyes jumped to fourth. He said TCU falling had less to do with TCU than it did with Ohio State coming on strong, and he reaffirmed that the performance in the 13th game was the deciding factor.

Long said that the teams in first, second, and third are "clear cut", while Ohio State was the same being in fourth ahead of Baylor and TCU. He said the Buckeyes' nine wins over bowl eligible teams made them more attractive as a team than the Big 12 teams also in the running. He also confirmed that the head-to-head result was why Baylor ended up ahead of TCU.