The same four teams that started a pandemic-racked college football season ranked in the Top 4 of the first College Football Playoff rankings remained in those positions on Sunday morning, as SEC champion Alabama and ACC champion Clemson were joined by Big Ten champion Ohio State and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the national semifinal pairings.
Alabama and Notre Dame will meet in one national semifinal on New Year’s Day, playing at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The game was originally scheduled to be played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, but moved over the weekend due to California related COVID-19 regulations. Clemson and Ohio State will play New Year’s Night in the Sugar Bowl at the Superdome in New Orleans.
The national championship game will be played on Monday, January 11th at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Finishing #5 in the rankings were the Texas A&M Aggies, finishing 8-1 and earning a berth in the Orange Bowl against North Carolina on January 2nd.
Oklahoma, despite two early-season losses, rallied late in the season to win the Big 12 Conference championship, finishing #6 and earning a berth in the Cotton Bowl against Florida, who finished seventh after falling to Alabama in Saturday night’s SEC title game in Atlanta.
American Athletic Conference champion Cincinnati finished eighth, despite an unbeaten season that included a win over Tulsa in the AAC title game on Saturday night. The Bearcats will play Georgia in the Peach Bowl on New Year’s Day.
Pac-12 champion Oregon will play the Big 12 runner-up Iowa State Cyclones in the Fiesta Bowl on January 2nd. The Cyclones loss to Oklahoma in Saturday’s conference title game dropped ISU to #10 in the final CFP rankings. Oregon beat USC on Friday night to win the Pac-12 championship, taking advantage of an opportunity that arose from rival Washington being unable to play in the conference title game due to COVID-19 issues.
