The debut 12-team College Football Playoff field is set, but not without a late dose of controversy.
SMU earned an at-large bid ahead of Alabama after losing 34-31 to Clemson in the ACC championship game. Trailing 31-14 entering the fourth quarter, the Mustangs went on a 17-0 run to tie the game with 16 seconds left. The Tigers drilled a 56-yard field goal as time expired to earn an automatic playoff bid.
That was the lone source of debate in what is otherwise a predictable bracket. The top four seeds, as expected, were No. 1 Oregon, No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Boise State and No. 4 Arizona State. Those teams will host the winning teams from the opening round in the quarterfinals.
The at-large teams are No. 5 seed Texas, No. 6 Penn State, No. 7 Notre Dame, No. 8 Ohio State, No. 9 Tennessee, No. 10 Indiana and No. 11 SMU. Clemson comes in at No. 12 as the fifth conference champion.
SMU and Alabama lead the winners and losers from the final playoff rankings:
Winners
SMU
There’s reason to think SMU would’ve been left out in favor of Alabama had Clemson maintained the 17-point lead it held at halftime and again in the third quarter of the ACC title game. A convincing loss to the Tigers would’ve forced the committee to look closer at the Mustangs’ résumé of wins compared to Alabama. But the late comeback and competitive defeat were enough to bolster SMU’s case. And it’s not like the Mustangs are backdooring into the 12-team field; they beat six bowl teams in the regular season and lost by a field goal to a pair of ranked opponents. But SMU will be in the crosshairs as the final at-large team in the playoff.
The ACC
Clemson’s win will give the ACC two teams in the playoff, a fairly remarkable development given where the league stood in the postseason picture as recently as last weekend. While Miami lost twice in November to fall out of the race, that SMU and Clemson made the field gives the ACC a solid argument for being seen as the third-best league in the Power Four, behind the SEC and Big Ten and ahead of the Big 12.
Arizona State
Another team that came out of nowhere to reach the playoff, Arizona State will benefit enormously from Clemson’s win by earning a bye into the quarterfinals as one of the top four conference champions. As the No. 4 seed, the Sun Devils will meet the winner of Clemson and Texas. They have won six in a row and eight of nine to end the regular season, including ranked wins against Iowa State, Kansas State and Brigham Young.
Texas
Despite losing the SEC championship to Georgia, the Longhorns were able to land in the coveted No. 5 spot as the top-ranked at-large team. That gives Texas manageable matchups against Clemson in the opening round and then, with a win, against Arizona State in the quarterfinals. Penn State also benefits from earning the No. 6 seed, since that pits the Nittany Lions against SMU and potentially Boise State.
Losers
Alabama
The Crimson Tide were the first team left out of the field after slumping to three losses in coach Kalen DeBoer. Those losses, including an ugly 21-point defeat to Oklahoma last month, overshadowed Alabama’s high-quality wins against Georgia, South Carolina, LSU and Missouri. In the end, the Tide’s week-to-week unpredictability and inability to seal the deal in November cost them dearly in the comparison with SMU.
South Carolina and Mississippi
Both three-loss contenders had strong cases for the playoff: South Carolina was the hottest team in the SEC in the second half of the regular season and Ole Miss often looked like one of the best teams in the entire FBS. For the Gamecocks, losses to the Crimson Tide and Rebels were impossible to overcome even as they ended the year on a six-game winning streak. For the Rebels, an unforgivable loss to Florida cost them a chance at making the playoff and likely hosting an opening-round matchup.
Miami
That SMU made the playoff despite losing to Clemson makes will be hard for Miami to swallow because the Hurricanes were set to meet the Mustangs before losing to Syracuse in the season finale. Given how the committee came down in the comparison between SMU and Alabama, the Hurricanes would’ve had a very strong case for an at-large bid had they reached the ACC title game with one loss and then lost to the Mustangs. Miami ended up as the second team out of the field after the Tide.
