Championship Weekend college football schedule, scores, and more

The inaugural College Football Playoff’s field is set. We knew Alabama and Oregon will be the top two seeds. We know the Tide will host in Nola and the Ducks are going to Pasadena. We know Florida State’s in. And we now the fourth spot is Ohio State over Baylor and TCU.

We’ve also got an idea of how the rest of bowl season shakes out. The committee’s expected rankings, each bowl’s conference ties, and a notion of how college football works can get you close to guessing how December and January will look.

The top of the rankings were unaffected by upsets on championship weekend, as Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, Ohio State, Baylor and TCU all handled business on the last weekend of regular season college football.

Instead, the arguments shifted to the strength of the wins, as only FSU’s victory over Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship was a single-digit margin of victory. But FSU secured a conference title with the win, as did Alabama, Oregon and Ohio State, while TCU and Baylor have to settle for a split of the Big 12 title. That lack of a singular champion for the Big 12 ultimately helped result in exclusion from the playoff.

The inaugural College Football Playoff has been announced, and the bracket is out. Top-seed Alabama will play fourth-seed Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl, while second-seed Oregon will play Florida State in the Rose Bowl. The committee will also announce the pairings for the New Year’s Six bowls, matching up a the Group of Five champion along with the rest of the best at-large teams that missed out on the Playoff. Those matchups will be available later.

The committee placed the teams in the Rose or Sugar Bowl based off of location, with preference given to the higher seed. The winners of each semifinal advance to Arlington, Texas 11 days later, and that’s the entire bracket. Fans of TCU and Baylor, the two contenders left out of the mix, surely wish the Playoff had already expanded beyond four teams, but we’ll likely have to wait a few years for that.

After nearly two months of rankings releases, we finally have a College Football Playoff selection show that matters. The selection committee for the Playoff will be announcing its picks live on ESPN on Sunday, starting at 12:30 p.m. ET. Then, around 2:45 p.m. ET, the committee will announce the entire top 25, along with the pairings for the rest of the New Year’s Six bowls.

The top two seeds in the Playoff will get its most geographically “advantageous” site, either the Sugar Bowl or the Rose Bowl. You can expect Alabama in the Sugar and Oregon in the Rose, no matter which ranks No. 1. Florida State is also in, and the battle for the fourth spot comes down to Baylor, Ohio State, and TCU. Our prediction has the Buckeyes at No. 4.

And third-string be damned, Ohio State put together arguably the most impressive performance of the season, stomping Wisconsin, 59-0. It was the kind of showing we haven’t seen from the Buckeyes in a long time.

The fans knew it. The Buckeye faithful who made Lucas Oil Stadium “Horseshoe West” stayed until the end, celebrating the return of the Buckeyes of old.

1. You want style points? Ohio State’s got your style points. Ohio State needed a team in the top 4 to lose this week to open a playoff spot. It didn’t get that. Absent an opening in the bracket, the Buckeyes were left to make such a striking impression on the Selection Committee that it would have no choice but to bump Florida State or TCU from the final four to make room. On that front, they did about as well as could be expected. OSU scored on five of its first six drives, racking up 31 points on the Badgers’ No. 2-ranked defense before Wisconsin realized the game had started. On the other side of the ball, the Ohio State defense held Wisconsin’s prolific offense to 106 first-half yards, forced two turnovers, returned one of those turnovers for a touchdown, and held Melvin Gordon to just 76 yards, his lowest total against an FBS opponent this season. The Buckeyes scored another touchdown on their first offensive series of the second half. It didn’t matter. Everyone had stopped watching.

For more on the machinations of the Playoff Committee, read our Playoff predictions thread.

As you’d expect, Art Briles used his postgame interview after Baylor knocked off Kansas State to advocate for his squad’s spot in the College Football playoff:

Briles had already said that leaving Baylor out was “not the American way.” I’m not *quite* sure what he means -- did America invent the idea of races? Couldn’t you kinda argue that we kinda don’t even elect presidents by giving it to the guy who won the head-to-head? -- but we feel for Briles and all Baylor fans who might have to watch a team they beat head into the Playoff.That’s a tough pill to swallow, but at least two very very good teams are going to have to sit out, and whoever it is will feel bitter about it.

We won’t officially find out until Sunday, but Florida State has clinched a spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff with its win over Georgia Tech in the ACC championship game. The No. 4 Seminoles are 13-0 and ACC champions, beating the No. 11 Yellow Jackets 37-35 in Charlotte Saturday night.

Like nearly every Florida State win this season, this one stayed close for a while. Georgia Tech took an early lead on its first possession and the two teams alternated touchdowns throughout the first half; the Seminoles did not hold the advantage until a touchdown pass made it 28-21 just 30 seconds before halftime. A trio of late field goals gave Florida State a 37-28 advantage, and a late interception thrown by Justin Thomas sealed the win. Georgia Tech scored a late touchdown to bring it within two points, but the Seminoles recovered the onside kick to win it.

The win gives Baylor their second consecutive 11-win season and third 10-win season in the last four years, both new records for a program that had been a Big 12 doormat before coach Art Briles arrived.

1. Baylor’s in the barn. The Bears entered Saturday hoping for chaos, or at least a little assistance from above. But Alabama, Oregon, TCU and Ohio State -- all ranked ahead of Baylor in the most recent College Football Playoff poll -- held serve impressively. Yes, Baylor’s opponent was ranked higher than all others save Oregon, and yes, the Bears hold a head-to-head victory over No. 3 TCU. But whether that head-to-head win is enough to trump TCU’s better non-conference schedule or Ohio State’s brand name is anyone’s guess. The easy part is done. Now it’s just Baylor holding its collective breath for one more night.

Cardale Jones is doing kinda good.

The Buckeyes lost the two-time Big Ten Player of the Year Braxton Miller during the preseason and handed the offense to freshman J.T. Barrett. After some initial mistakes, Barrett became one of the nation’s best quarterbacks. He was considered a dark horse Heisman candidate before breaking his ankle last week against Michigan. With both of its top two quarterbacks gone, Ohio State turned to Jones and hoped he would be serviceable.

Entering Saturday night, Jones had completed 10 of 17 pass attempts this season for 118 yards. He’s more than doubled that yardage total already.

At least Ohio State has *some* competition today:

Brutus waits a beat, too. It’s surely to let the kid win, but I like to pretend he’s cheating but STILL lost.

Pics via ESPN

Pic via Bud Elliott of Tomahawk Nation

FIRST:

Are they Jabbawockeez? Are they in the Blue Man Group, but with green and yellow members to? Why doesn’t No. 8 get a mask?

Now, the Tide turn their attention to the first-ever Playoff. We know Oregon’s in, with the Tide and Ducks almost certainly the top two seeds in the bracket. Oregon made its case with a 51-13 win over No. 7 Arizona in the Pac-12 Championship Game, and the Tide responded with a resounding win against the Tigers.

No matter where they end up in the bracket, Alabama will be playing at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 1. We know the selection committee will give location preference to the top teams, and New Orleans is far more practical for Tide fans than Pasadena.

The win makes Oklahoma State bowl-eligible, a stunning development for a team that had lost its last five games and looked certain to miss the postseason. The loss could also knock the No. 20 Sooners completely out of the Playoff Committee top 25, which could damage the resumes of possible postseason participants TCU and Baylor.

Via CBS

If this seems familiar, he did the exact same thing last week against Auburn.

Alabama has pretty clearly outplayed Missouri so far in the SEC Championship Game, but the Tigers have been able to keep the score close thanks to solid play from their defensive line and a missed field goal by the Tide. One of the main cogs for Missouri both Saturday and this season has been Shane Ray, who led the team with 20.5 tackles for a loss and 12 sacks this season.

Early in the second quarter, Alabama extended their lead to 14-0 when Blake Sims found DeAndre White on a 58-yard touchdown pass. To make matters worse for Missouri, Ray was ejected from the game for targeting after hitting Sims late.

The Big 12’s motto this season has been “ONE TRUE CHAMPION.”

The idea is that, while the Big 12 doesn’t have a conference championship game to actually determine a champion, it is the only Power 5 conference that plays a true round robin schedule. If there is a tie, then the head-to-head matchup should determine which team would be the ONE TRUE CHAMPION. Every game counts, decide it on the field, etc.

HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO GET A SHIRT ON THAT THING? IT’S SO UNRULY:

Oh that was you all along, wasn’t it. Nice teeth.

If nebulous discussions of “game control” will be had today, let it be said that TCU controlled theirs.

The Horned Frogs will end the regular season with two wins over ranked teams (Oklahoma and Kansas State), and has a “quality loss” in their 61-58 loss at Baylor. Combine that with an existing No. 3 ranking in the Playoff rankings, and the Frogs have to like their chances of remaining in the four team field come Tuesday night.

Last week, Finebaum callers had live mics during the Iron Bowl. It was fantastic.

This week! Alabama and Mizzou in the Georgia Dome! Whatcha got, SEC?

No. 3 TCU is in a fight for a playoff spot in the last week of the regular season, facing 2-9 Iowa State in what many expect to be a blowout affair. That’s something they’ll need -- the Horned Frogs are competing with Baylor and Ohio State for a playoff spot, and the more convincingly they can beat the Cyclones, the better.

TCU certainly got the style points going early, as David Porter connected with quarterback Trevone Boykin for a 55-yard double pass touchdown to take the lead in the first quarter.

Lee Corso made perhaps his finest heel turn of the college football season Saturday, picking Kansas State to beat Baylor in front of a huge crowd of Bears fans. And speaking of Bears, donning a Wildcat head next to Mike Singletary is gonna get you smacked in the whiskers.

(via ESPN)