Georgia State, Michigan, OSU and Ohio State will play for the national championship after being selected for the college football game on Sunday.
After not playing in the conference championship game, the Buckeyes (11-1) moved up one place after losing USC in the Pac-12 title game on Friday to give a Big Ten team two playoffs for the first time in the format’s nine-year history.
No. 1 ranked Ohio State will face No. 1 Georgia in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, while No. 2 Michigan will face No. 3 TCU in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl on December 31.
Presented by AT&T, the CFP National Championships will take place January 9 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
Georgia opened as a 7-point favorite over Ohio State in Caesars Sportsbook, and Michigan is a 9-point favorite over TCU.
TCU (12-1) retained its No. 3 ranking after losing in overtime in the Big 12 championship game to Kansas State. The Horned Frogs and Buckeyes are the fifth and sixth teams to make it to the College Football Playoff without winning a conference title.
Horned Frogs coach Sonny Dykes said he was concerned about the state of his team after the loss but added that he trusted the selection committee.
“I think we definitely deserve it,” Dykes said.
At an observation party for TCU players and staff on its Fort Worth, Texas, campus, cheers erupted when the Frogs landed in the arc during the ad presentation.
Alabama (10-2) was hoping to jump into the top four after losses to USC and TCU, as head coach Nick Saban pressured his team on Saturday.
“If we play any of those teams that are about to go in, will we be the underdogs or the favorites?” Saban said on Fox at halftime of the Big Ten Championship.
The Crimson Tide was ranked #5 by the selection committee.
NC State athletic director Bo Corrigan said the big wins for Ohio State over Penn State and Notre Dame helped propel the Buckeyes to Alabama.
“When we looked at the overall work, the committee was comfortable with Ohio State in fourth place and Alabama in fifth,” Corrigan said in an interview on ESPN.
Corrigan also told ESPN’s Heather DeNich that having three teams (TCU, Alabama and Ohio State) without conference titles changed the conversation in some of the attendees as they discussed the merits of each.
“It’s obviously going to change some because it’s different than it was in the past, but our aim is to look at the totality of the games that have been played,” he said.
There was a lot of discussion about Alabama, Corrigan said, but without conference titles, more consideration was given to biographies. TCU’s regular season win over Kansas State loomed large in Final Resolution — the committee was impressed by the Horned Frogs’ comeback and 10-point margin of victory — but Corrigan said that was just one example of what impressed the committee.
“You think about TCU in the game against Baylor, getting in the field, running in the field, kicking the field goal speaks to a disciplined team, a good team,” he said. “We’re trying to look as good as we can as we go into this.”
Georgia (13-0) and Michigan (13-0) are in the playoffs for the second year in a row. They won their conference titles easily on Saturday and will be looking to become the fourth team to win the CFP title with an undefeated record.
The only time Georgia State and Ohio State previously played was in the 1992 Citrus Bowl, a 21-14 Bulldogs victory. TCU, whose only national title came in 1938, has never played Michigan.
Corrigan said the committee made no special effort to avoid a rematch of Ohio State and Michigan in the semifinals. The Buckeyes and Wolverines have never played outside of their annual regular season game in a rivalry dating back to 1902.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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