Familiar teams remain at the top
Few upstarts earn berths in major bowls yet again
A bowl-selection day roundup:
Parity has become more prevalent in college football over the last few decades, but not at the top.
Notre Dame is now the 10th team to reach the four-team College Football Playoff in the five years of its existence.
Alabama has played in all five playoffs and Clemson has made four. Oklahoma is in this season for the third time. No other Big 12 team has made it. Ohio State has made the semifinals twice and been close three other times.
If Alabama and Clemson win their semifinals, and they are both double-digit favorites, they would meet in the playoff for a fourth straight season and play for the national title for the third time in four years.
Southern Mississippi, Louisiana-Monroe, Miami (Ohio) and Wyoming are bowl-eligible but they will all be home for the postseason.
The 39 bowl games did not have enough spots to accommodate 82 eligible teams. Teams outside the Power Five conferences ended up getting squeezed out because those leagues have fewer contracts to guarantee bowl bids.
The four teams staying home each had six wins, the minimum needed for eligibility. Southern Miss finished 6-5 after having a regular-season game canceled because of severe weather.
Army and BYU, which are both independent programs, ended up in bowl games after some uncertainty. The Black Knights will play Houston in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth. BYU is going to the Idaho Potato Bowl to face Western Michigan.
Central Florida’s bid for a second straight self-proclaimed national championship goes through the desert.
Snubbed by the College Football Playoff for the second straight season, the seventh-ranked and undefeated Knights will face No. 11 LSU in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day.
UCF (12-0) also went undefeated last season and proclaimed itself the national champion while the official title went to playoff champion Alabama.
The Knights closed out another undefeated regular season and stretched their unbeaten streak to 25 games with a 56-41 win over Memphis in Saturday’s American Athletic Conference title game. The CFP selection committee tabbed Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame and Oklahoma for this year’s playoff, slotting UCF eighth in Sunday’s final rankings.
LSU (9-3) appeared to be in the CFP playoff hunt until losing to No. 22 Florida in early October. The Tigers knocked off then No. 2 Georgia, but were blown out by top-ranked Alabama and lost a wild seven-overtime game to No. 21 Texas A&M to close out the regular season.
UCF’s streak includes a Peach Bowl win over another SEC school, Auburn, last season.
Georgia was oh-so-close to knocking off top-ranked Alabama in the Southeastern Conference championship game and earning a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Instead, the Bulldogs will settle for an intriguing matchup against Texas in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day in New Orleans. It’s the first time the two powerhouse programs have played since the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2, 1984.
Georgia (11-2, 7-1 SEC) is led by D’Andre Swift and Elijah Holyfield, an impressive tandem of running backs who have combined for nearly 2,000 yards on the ground this season. The Bulldogs’ only two losses were to LSU and Alabama, 35-28, on Saturday.