Fiesta Bowl could be a QB showdown

While the West Division champion Badgers are officially the Big Ten runner-ups, they are behind three of the conference’s East Division teams in the final College Football Playoff rankings and AP Top 25 – trailing Ohio State, Penn State and MI.

The semifinal winners will meet for the national title January 9 in Tampa, Florida. “I’d like to see all five of the conference champions get in the playoff“.

The Ohio State Buckeyes and Clemson Tigers meet New Years Eve night in the Fiesta Bowl college football playoff at University of Phoenix Stadium on ESPN. His daughter Nicki gave birth to a boy, Troy, and Meyer is a grandfather for the first time.

What propelled Ohio State into the College Football Playoff was its win over top 10 Oklahoma on the road, Hocutt said. Then the team went on a run that included wins over Ohio State (which is in the playoff) and an eventual Big Ten championship when the Nittany Lions came back from a 28-14 halftime deficit against Wisconsin, who had a pretty good resume of their own this season.

Strength of schedule doesn’t matter or Washington not only would not have been selected, but in all likelihood would also have two losses if it played a competitive non-conference schedule.

Commence debate – the pairings are in, and Penn State and MI are out.

Ohio State, which lost the Big Ten East tiebreaker to Penn State and was off this weekend, became the first team to reach the playoff in its three-year history without winning its conference.

The Tigers closed out the season with a 42-35 win over No. 18 Virginia Tech in the ACC title game and leapfrogged the Buckeyes in the final CFP standings to No. 2. Penn State finished fifth in the final College Football Playoff rankings, just ahead of MI.

Winning a conference championship in college football is extremely hard, and is certainly much more of a resume builder than the results of one or two early-season games. The No. 1 Crimson Tide will face the No. 4 Huskies in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, .

At least the last-place team is locked in stone. 1,302 yards rushing, 5.3 yards per carry, 16 TDs. Quarterback J.T. Barrett isn’t too far behind with 969 yards and nine TDs, as well. But the Tide hasn’t faced a Top 25 scoring offense since Week 2 against Western Kentucky, which ranks second.

The committee has illogically watered down the journey of winning a Power-5 conference, and instead decides to reward a name-brand for taking a week off and risking absolutely nothing. Keep an eye on Ohio State freshman Nick Bosa and Clemson senior Ben Boulware – both make plays all over the field.

Coaching: Ohio State. Meyer has won multiple national titles.

The rest of the New Year’s Six bowls were set to be announced later in the day Sunday. Four teams that started near the top of the College Football Playoff rankings will play for the national championship.