This Sunday was a historic and exciting day for college football: the selection committee of the College Football Playoff announced the chosen teams to compete for the national title, which for the first time will have a 12-team format, eight more than in previous seasons. Additionally, the powerhouse team of Alabama was left out after one of their worst campaigns in recent times.
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The "Crimson Tide" ranked 11th, but due to Arizona State's title in the Big 12 Conference and Clemson's in the ACC, they surpassed Alabama, who had their first season without the legendary coach Nick Saban in 2024.
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How will the College Football playoffs be contested?
The top four conference champion teams were seeded and will not play in the first round of the playoffs.
- 1st Oregon (Big 10)
- 2nd Georgia (SEC)
- 3rd Boise State (Mountain West)
- 4th Arizona State (Big 12)
The following eight ranked teams will face each other in a single match at the home of the team with the best position between the 20th and 21st of December:
- 8th Indiana at 5th Notre Dame (December 20th): the winner will face Georgia in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on January 1st.
- 16th Clemson at 3rd Texas (December 21st): the winner will face Arizona State in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on January 1st.
- 10th SMU at 4th Penn State (December 21st): the winner will play against Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix on December 31st.
- 7th Tennessee at 6th Ohio State (December 21): the winner will travel to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to play against Oregon on January 1st.
The winners of this round will advance to the semifinals, scheduled for January 9th and 10th at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and the Orange Bowl in Miami.
The grand final will be on January 20th, at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Why didn't Alabama qualify for the playoffs?
Until last week, the “Crimson Tide” were holding on to the last spot that qualified for the playoffs, but in Saturday's ACC Conference final, SMU lost 34-31 to Clemson due to a 56-yard field goal in the final seconds by the “Tigers”.
That secured Clemson's spot in the playoffs and left the SMU "Mustangs" hanging in the air until this Sunday at noon when the selection committee announced the qualifiers.
"We were on pins and needles," said Rhett Lashley, SMU's coach. "Until we saw the name 'SMU' on the screen, we were on the edge of our seats. We are truly happy and grateful to the committee for rewarding our team's total effort."
The "Mustangs" only suffered two defeats, compared to three for Alabama (including a humiliating one against Vanderbilt). Although SMU's schedule was not as tough, the committee was impressed by their comeback against Clemson that took the game to the final seconds.
“We simply felt that, in this particular case, SMU had an advantage over Alabama,” said Warde Manuel, Michigan's athletic director and chairman of the selection committee. “But it is not a lack of respect towards the strength of Alabama's schedule. We analyzed the overall performance of both teams.”
Thanks to this criterion, SMU finished tenth, one spot above Alabama, which was surpassed by two lower-ranked teams but qualified for being champions of their conference: Arizona State (12th) in the Big 12 and Clemson (16th) in the ACC.
As a consolation prize, Alabama will play in the ReliaQuest Bowl (formerly known as the Outback Bowl) in Tampa against Michigan on December 31st. This bowl is just one more in a long list of end-of-season games that do not have implications for the national title.