On Sunday December 7, the first ever College Football Playoff field was announced by the College Football Playoff committee.

The 12 member committee met for the final time to discuss the final College Football Playoff rankings. The committee, which is comprised of athletic directors from across the country as well as former commissioners of various conferences, has been releasing their rankings for each of the past six weeks.

At 12:30 Eastern Time on Sunday December 7 the committee decided on the four teams which would play for the national championship; the Alabama Crimson Tide, Oregon Ducks, Florida State Seminoles and Ohio State Buckeyes.

Alabama, Oregon and Florida State were almost guaranteed spots in the playoffs after each team took care of business in their conference championship games over the weekend.

However the controversy was surrounding the fourth spot.  There were three teams that were playing for that final spot. Ohio State, TCU and Baylor all had legitimate arguments as to why their team should make the Playoff.

In the week leading up to the final rankings, the committee had TCU ranked third above undefeated Florida State, but Florida State had played 11 ranked Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship game whereas TCU played a two-win Iowa State team.

TCU would go on to dismantle Iowa State 55-3 and sixth-ranked Baylor would defeat Kansas State 38-27 leaving only Ohio State as the only team left to make a statement.

Many felt as if the Buckeyes faced an uphill battle in the Big Ten Championship against the Wisconsin Badgers.  Their Quarterback JT Barrett went down for the season in the Buckeyes final game against Michigan. The Buckeyes had to turn to third string quarterback Cardale Jones to have his first start against Wisconsin.

The Buckeyes would go on to dominate the Badgers 55-0 which in many people’s eyes was enough to put them into that number four slot jumping TCU.

By Sunday, it looked as if the Buckeyes could join Alabama, Oregon and Florida State in the College Football Playoff and that is exactly what happened.

On New Year’s Day the two national semifinals will be held. Top-seeded Alabama faces Ohio State in the first semifinal in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.   Then Oregon and Florida State will meet in Pasadena California at the Rose Bowl in the other semifinal.

My expectation is that the favorites, Alabama and Oregon will advance to the National Championship.   If that is the case look for Alabama to be crowned National Champions on January 8^th.

But that is why they play the game.