Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Notre Dame Make College Football Playoff
The College Football Playoff field is set.
No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Clemson, No. 3 Ohio State and No. 4 Notre Dame will compete for the national championship after the playoff selection committee announced its final ranking of the 2020 season on Sunday.
The four teams will compete in the semifinals on New Year's Day, with the winners advancing to the Jan. 11 national championship game, to be held at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.
The Crimson Tide will meet Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl, while the Tigers will face Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl. On Saturday night, it was announced that the semifinal that was set for the Rose Bowl in Pasadena is moving to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, this year due to COVID-19 restrictions in California.
Clemson–Ohio State is a rematch of last year's semifinal, which the Tigers won 29–23. Clemson went on to lose to LSU in the national championship game.
Texas A&M was left on the outside looking in, checking in at No. 5 in the final ranking. After Ohio State (over Northwestern), Alabama (over Florida) and Clemson (over Notre Dame) all won their conference title games on Saturday, the Aggies and Irish were widely viewed as the two teams competing for the final spot in the field.
This is Clemson's sixth straight appearance in the College Football Playoff. Both the Tigers and Tide will be making their sixth trip since the playoff's inception in 2014, the most in college football.
Final top 25 playoff ranking of 2020:
- Alabama (11-0)
- Clemson (10-1)
- Ohio State (6-0)
- Notre Dame (10-1)
- Texas A&M (8-1)
- Oklahoma (8-2)
- Florida (8-3)
- Cincinnati (9-0)
- Georgia (7-2)
- Iowa State (8-3)
- Indiana (6-1)
- Coastal Carolina (11-0)
- North Carolina (8-3)
- Northwestern (6-2)
- Iowa (6-2)
- BYU (10-1)
- USC (5-1)
- Miami (FL) (8-2)
- Louisiana (9-1)
- Texas (6-3)
- Oklahoma State (7-3)
- San Jose State (7-0)
- NC State (8-3)
- Tulsa (6-2)
- Oregon (4-2)
