After three months of action packed college football the College Football Playoff has been decided. The committee announced on December 4th the four teams that would play for the national championship game. The defending champions Alabama got the number one seed, and will play the Washington Huskies in the Chick Fil a Peach Bowl. The other matchup pits the Clemson Tigers and Ohio State Buckeyes in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. The semifinal games will be played on New Year's Eve, with the championship game being played on January 9th in Tampa Bay, Florida. Alabama is an overwhelming 16.5 point favorite over Washington, while Ohio State has opened up as three point favorite over Clemson.
There wasn’t much controversy surrounding the committee’s decision, but as always some teams were left on the outside looking in. The team with the most to complain about was the Penn State Nittany Lions. After a slow 2-2 start to the season, Penn State rattled off nine consecutive wins, including a win over Ohio State and a Big Ten championship. Ultimately the committee decided that their slow start to the season was too much to overcome. NHS sophomore Kyle Duval thought that they should have gotten in.
“I think that Penn State beat some strong opponents and should have made it over Washington.” He said.
Another team that felt they were ranked unfairly was the Michigan Wolverines. For much of the season Michigan was ranked in the top four, but late season losses to Iowa and Ohio State knocked them to the sixth spot in the rankings. They were not so much angry at being left out of the top four as they were that Penn State was ranked ahead of them. Early in the season, Michigan defeated Penn State 49-10 in a game that was never really close. Wolverines Safety Jabrill Peppers sent out a series of tweets both defending and complaining about the committee's decision.
“We take care of business, we're in. We don't, we're not.. and we didn't. Can't knock the teams that did.” Peppers said, before later tweeting out, “I think the committee knows we are better, they just can't knock what they've turned their season into. It's a slippery slope.”
Not all is lost for these two teams. Penn State will play the University of Southern California in the Rose Bowl, which is one of the most historic bowls in all of college football. The Wolverines get to play in the Orange Bowl against the Florida State. Many of the major bowl games will be played on New Year’s Eve or the day after. Oklahoma, the winner of the Big 12 conference, will play the University of Auburn in the Sugar Bowl on January 2nd. In the Cotton Bowl, the 13-0 Western Michigan Broncos look to complete their first undefeated season in school history against the Wisconsin Badgers. Many other teams reached the 6 win requirement and will be playing in one of the 40 bowl games sponsored by the NCAA. Bowl season kicks off on December 17th and will provide football fans with endless entertainment culminating with a new champion being crowned.
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