by Joey Derrico

The college football regular season has just concluded and the final rankings, along with bowl game schedules, have been released. The College Football Playoff Committee, a group of 12 experts who rank the top 25  teams weekly, selected the top 4 teams on Sunday to participate in the end-of-year playoffs. The top four teams included undefeated SEC champions Alabama, one-loss Ohio State, ACC champion Clemson, and PAC-12 champion Washington.

Top ranked Alabama will face the 4th ranked Washington Huskies on December 31 in Atlanta while 3rd seeded Ohio State will meet with second ranked Clemson in Arizona, also on New Year’s Eve. Ohio State alum and ESPN College Football analyst Kirk Herbstreit believes that the national championship game will come down to Alabama and Clemson with Clemson winning the championship and spoiling the hopes of a second title for the Buckeyes in the process.

There was much debate about who should be the 4th seeded team in the playoffs, with names like Michigan and Big Ten champion Penn State being thrown around as possible contenders. After much debate, the committee decided on Washington, most likely because they only had one loss while Michigan and Penn State had two. The ranked teams that didn’t make the playoffs will participate in bowl games of their own. Highly anticipated games include the Rose Bowl featuring USC and Penn State and also the Sugar Bowl pitting Auburn against Oklahoma.