Oklahoma snags final spot in college playoff semifinals
ATLANTA — The Oklahoma Sooners (12-1) received the final slot in the four-team U.S. College Football Playoffs.
The placement occurred Sunday over primary contenders Ohio State (12-1) and Georgia (11-2), a move that sidestepped the most controversial possible decision in the playoff format’s fifth season.
The other three teams chosen for the playoff are No. 1 Alabama (13-0), No. 2 Clemson (13-0) and No. 3 Notre Dame (12-0).
In the national semifinals, Clemson will play Notre Dame at the Cotton Bowl in Arlington, Texas, on the afternoon of Dec. 29, and Alabama will play Oklahoma at the Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens,
Fla., in the evening. The winners will play for the national championship on Jan. 7 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.
Georgia was ranked fifth in the selection committee’s final rankings, while Ohio State was ranked sixth. Due to a separate contract, the Buckeyes will play the Pacific-12 champion, Washington, in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.
The Sooners had been ranked fifth before Saturday’s games, just below the Bulldogs at fourth. Ohio State had been sixth. Georgia nearly toppled Alabama in the Southeastern Conference title game here, but the Crimson Tide, behind starter-turnedbackup quarterback Jalen Hurts, came from behind to win, 35-28. Meanwhile, Oklahoma decisively defeated Texas, which in October was the sole team to hand the Sooners a loss this season.
In an interview on ESPN shortly after the rankings were released, Rob Mullens, the Oregon athletic director who is the selection committee chair, said that there was no consensus that any of Oklahoma, Georgia or Ohio State was “unequivocally” better than the other two. At that point, he said, the committee deferred to the protocol it is supposed to use to break ties, which includes conference championships. On Saturday, Oklahoma had won its conference championship, while Georgia had failed to.
“No one was unequivocally better than the other,” Mullens said, “so then we leaned on the protocol.”
Yet the ranking of Georgia above Ohio State — which, like Oklahoma, won its conference Saturday — essentially indicated that the room did feel Georgia was unequivocally better than Ohio State, as the tiebreaker would have led Ohio State to be ranked higher.
Ohio State fans were able to claim a modicum of redemption, though. If the Buckeyes’ 49-20 loss to Purdue (6-6) in October was one of the two most consequential defeats of the season, the other was Georgia’s 36-16 loss at Louisiana State (9-3) in October. Louisiana State’s quarterback, Joe Burrow, who threw for 200 yards against Georgia, had transferred from Ohio State.
Several observers on social media and even on ESPN claimed that Las Vegas point-spreads are proof that Georgia, not Oklahoma, was the best of the three teams.
Mullens said there was “strong debate, even division in the room.”
Central Florida (12-0), the final undefeated team in the Football Bowl Subdivision, was apparently not considered for the playoff. UCF was No. 8 in the committee’s last rankings and defeated Memphis, 56-41, to win its second straight American Athletic Conference title. The Knights have a 25-game winning streak and last year self-claimed a national title alongside the one Alabama won. But yet again the committee indicated that teams from the Group of Five conferences are unlikely to receive consideration.