SMU edge out Alabama as 12-team College Football Playoff bracket set | College football

SMU captured the last open spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff on Sunday, edging Alabama to land in a bracket that placed undefeated Oregon at No 1.

The selection committee preferred the Mustangs (11-2), losers of a heartbreaker in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game, who had a far less difficult schedule than Alabama (9-3) of the SEC but, ultimately, still one fewer loss. The Crimson Tide have won the CFP times since the format was introduced in 2014, most recently in the 2020 season.

The first-of-its-kind 12-team bracket marks a new era for college football, though the Alabama-SMU debate made clear that there is no perfect formula for identifying a champion.

“We just felt, in this particular case, SMU had the nod above Alabama,” said Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, the chair of the selection committee. “But it’s no disrespect to Alabama’s strength of schedule. We looked at the entire body of work for both teams.”

The tournament starts on 20 and 21 December with four first-round games involving the teams seeded No 5-12. It concludes on 20 January with the national title game in Atlanta.

Georgia, the SEC champion, are seeded second; Boise State, the Mountain West champion, earned the third seed; and Big 12 title winners Arizona State got the fourth seed and the fourth and final first-round bye. All will play in quarter-finals at bowl games on 31 December and 1 January.

Clemson stole a bid and the 12th seed with their crazy win over SMU – the result that ultimately cost Alabama a spot in the field. The Tigers moved to No 16 in the rankings, but got in as the fifth-best conference winner.

There was some tension around how the rest of the teams were seeded because that determined who gets home-field advantage in the first round. The games, with exact dates and times still pending, are No.12 Clemson at No 5 Texas; No 11 SMU at No 6 Penn State; No 10 Indiana at No 7 Notre Dame; and No 9 Tennessee at No 8 Ohio State.

The Big Ten will lead the way with four teams, followed by the SEC with three and the ACC with two. The lasting memory from the inaugural bracket reveal will involve the decision that handed the ACC that second bid.

There’s a portion of college football fandom that believes almost everything in the sport has been rigged in favor of Alabama and the SEC over recent years. The Crimson Tide has won three national titles in the 10-year history of the playoff and had made the field eight times, including last year when they edged out undefeated Florida State for the last of what was then four spots.

SEC backers argue the preferential treatment is deserved, mainly because the SEC is a 16-team league loaded with powerhouse programs. This season, for instance, the Tide had the 16th toughest schedule and went 3-1 against teams in the top 25. SMU’s numbers: 60th in strength of schedule and 0-2 against the top 25.

But the committee also indicated it was reluctant to penalize teams that play in conference title games. SMU did. Alabama didn’t. And the way the Mustangs fought back from a three-touchdown deficit before finally losing to Clemson had an impact among the 13 people making the decision.

“We were impressed with the fact that SMU came back the way they did,” Manuel said. “They performed better in that second half offensively,” sort of like they have all season.