Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
CFP four likely set, but who is No. 1?
LSU or Ohio State: Both are unbeaten and worthy of spot
Picking the four teams to play in the College Football Playoff will be easy for the selection committee.
Louisiana State, Ohio State, Clemson and Oklahoma all took care of business in their conference championships Saturday — with varying degrees of difficulty.
Who is No. 1?
There could be a lot of discussion about that at the resort hotel in Grapevine, Texas, where the 13-member committee meets and will reveal the semifinal field Sunday at 9 a.m. PST.
Two pieces of the playoff puzzle, the two that seemed most likely to cause problems, fell nicely into place on championship weekend, starting with an upset in the Pac-12 on Friday and the favorites winning in the Big 12 and Southeastern Conference on Saturday.
Later, Ohio State looked in the first half like a team determined to test whether it could, indeed, lose its conference championship game and still make the playoff. Then the Buckeyes went on a 27-point second-half run and buried Wisconsin.
And Clemson? Well, let’s just say the Tigers are ready to defend their national championship.
After Oregon won the Pac-12 title and eliminated Utah, the only question Saturday was: Could Georgia beat LSU and force the selection committee to put two Southeastern Conference teams in the semifinals, or would the Big 12 champion take the last spot?
Oklahoma beat Baylor in an overtime thriller to start championship Saturday and LSU was too much for Georgia. We will never get back that week spent debating whether Utah or Oklahoma (or Baylor) should make the playoff.
The Buckeyes were No. 1 in the committee’s last rankings, ahead of LSU and Clemson. Georgia was fourth, but Oklahoma will take that slot.
To stay No. 1, Ohio State was going to need to make a statement against Wisconsin — because LSU finished the season with a flourish.
The Tigers pounded Texas A&M and Georgia by a combined 87-17 in their final two games. The iffy defense that was supposedly holding the Tigers back looked much tighter down the stretch. And Joe Burrow, well, let’s just say there will be even less drama at the Heisman Trophy ceremony next week than there was championship weekend.
The victory against Georgia gives LSU four victories against teams that will assuredly be in the committee’s final top 25. Alabama, Auburn, Florida and Georgia should all be in the top 15.
Ohio State came into the Big Ten championship with four victories against committee ranked teams (Cincinnati, Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin) and then fell behind by two touchdowns to the Badgers in Indianapolis before winning by 13.
“I don’t know who’s got a better resume, from front to bottom,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “I think we deserve to be No. 1 in the country.”
Ohio State has for most of the season been more dominant and more balanced than LSU. A more complete team to use the selection committee’s lingo. LSU is looking pretty complete these days.
“Look, we’ll play anybody anywhere,” said Burrow, who passed for 349 yards and four touchdowns against Georgia. “You can take us to Canada, and we’ll play on a gravel lot. It doesn’t matter where or who we play.”
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney will continue to complain that his team is being overlooked. He probably has a point, but the Tigers will likely finish the regular season with no victories against ranked teams. That should relegate Clemson to No. 3 in the committee’s eyes, which is bad news for No. 2. That early season slump by Trevor Lawrence is long over. Since a shaky first quarter against Louisville on Oct. 19, Lawrence has completed 75 percent of his passes and accounted for 25 touchdowns and no turnovers.
The coaches and players will say they are just happy to be in, and Oklahoma will certainly be no walkover, but being No. 1 is a big deal. The top three teams, all unbeaten, are in a different class than the rest of the country.