NCAA SNAPS
Oklahoma joins Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame in final four ... Two-loss Georgia can only blame itself after Saturday’s collapse ... Tagovailoa has high-ankle sprain
Two losses didn’t make the grade.
The pass-fail for the Georgia Bulldogs in the bid to make NCAA’s College Football Playoff came late in Saturday’s 35-28 drop to the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide.
At 11-2, Georgia was left on the outside looking in at the final four decided Sunday by the CFP selection committee.
So it’ll be No. 1 Alabama, the No. 2 Clemson Tigers and the No. 3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish — all unbeaten this season — joined by the No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners in the fight for the national championship.
Oklahoma, at 12-1, earned the final berth Saturday after a 39-27 victory over the rival Texas Longhorns in the Big 12 Championship Game.
According to the selection committee, the Sooners’ oneloss campaign trumps the two losses hung on Georgia and the resumé put up by the No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes, also a 12-1 program and conference champion.
“We spent considerable time on it as you might expect,” selection committee chair Rob Mullens told ESPN moments after the final four were revealed on the College Football Playoff Selection Show. “In the end, (Oklahoma was a one-loss conference champion with their only loss being on a neutral field — a close loss to a ranked team (in Texas) — which they avenged in their conference championship.
“(They have a) dynamic offence, and their defence has made some big plays the last couple of weeks.”
Indeed, Oklahoma’s only loss of the year came to Texas in the Red River Showdown, a 48-45 thriller at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Meanwhile, Georgia suffered two losses — and paid for it — even though it led seemingly unbeatable Alabama until the final few minutes of Saturday’s SEC finale in Atlanta. Earlier in the schedule, the Bulldogs lost to the host LSU Tigers 36-16 — another big strike against them.
As for Ohio State, it was thumped 49-20 by the host Purdue Boilermakers mid-season to keep it from making the final four. It didn’t matter that the Buckeyes rallied for convincing victories the last two weeks over the then-No. 4 Michigan Wolverines 62-39 and No. 21 Northwestern Wildcats 45-24 in the Big Ten championship Saturday night.
“Every combination was vetted, looking at their full body of work and their resume side by side,” Mullens told ESPN. “In the end, we decided amongst the group of three — Oklahoma, Georgia and Ohio State — that the committee voted that no one was unequivocally better than the other.
“So then we leaned on our protocol. And you know what those are ... we were looking at head-to-heads, conference champions, strength of schedule and results against common opponents.
“In this instance ... the oneloss conference champion carried the day.”
Thirteen members make up the selection committee, and all of them gathered over the weekend in Dallas to watch Championship Weekend together and then debate the merits of each team in the mix for the final four.
“There was a lot of discussion, and as you might expect in the room, we were looking a full body of work,” Mullens told ESPN. “We understand the charge is to get the four best teams. And when you’re looking at all of that, every bit of that matters. Eye-test, data ... all of that gets discussed. And I can assure you that every combination was discussed in the room.
“There was strong debate — there was division in the room. And we went early into the morning and got back to it after a couple of hours of sleep.”
In the end, they came out Sunday morning with a final four featuring three perfect teams and one-loss Oklahoma.
“We just got some great news,” Oklahoma head coach
Lincoln Riley told fans Sunday morning. “Can’t wait to play again. Boomer Sooner, see you soon.”
SECOND DOWN
It breaks down like this for the two semifinals: No. 1 Alabama (13-0) vs. No. 4 Oklahoma (12-1) in the Orange Bowl, on Saturday, Dec. 29 in Miami (Alabama is installed as a 14-point favourite); No. 2 Clemson (13-0) vs. No. 3 Notre Dame (12-0) in the Cotton Bowl, on Saturday, Dec. 29, in Arlington, Tex. (Clemson installed as an 11.5-point favourite) ... FYI: No unbeaten team heading into the semis has ever won the national title ... The two winners play each other in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Monday, Jan. 8, in Santa Clara, Calif.
THIRD DOWN
The news from Tuscaloosa, Ala., is QB Tua Tagovailoa suffered a high-ankle sprain and is expected out at least two weeks. He’ll have threeplus weeks to get ready for the semifinal ... Alabama head coach Nick Saban on meeting QB Kyler Murray and Oklahoma in that semi: “I haven’t seen a lot of them, but I’ve heard a lot about them, and I saw a bit of the game (Saturday) night,” Saban told ESPN. “They’re a pretty dynamic group. They make pretty explosive plays.” ... Clemson head coach Dabo
Swinney on playing at AT&T Stadium in their semi: “Never been to Jerry’s World,” Swinney told ESPN. “We’re going to paint Dallas orange.”
FOURTH DOWN
Next Saturday, the annual Army-Navy contest marks the only game on the schedule. That goes in Philadelphia ... Army’s enjoying historic football, having posting consecutive nine-win seasons for the first time since 1946. It’ll also take a 9-2 record up against Navy (3-9) looking to win the Commander-in-Chief ’s Trophy among the three NCAA service academy programs for the second straight season ... The Heisman announcement also goes next Saturday at 8 p.m. ET ... Bowl season begins Friday, Dec. 14, with the Division III Football Championship. One day later is the Division III finale and five FBS games beginning with the AutoNation Cure Bowl. A total of 40 tilts make up the FBS bowl season culminating with the national championship game.