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If the College Football Playoff started now, Alabama would play Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. And Alabama would be favored by 11 points, according to Vegas spread projections provided Tuesday night by oddsmaker RJ Bell of Pregame.com.
He added that the Crimson Tide would be favored by over a touchdown against any team in the country.
In the playoff selection committee's latest rankings, released Tuesday night, Alabama remained No. 1 and Clemson slipped to No. 4. The Tigers fell from No. 2 because of last week's loss at home to Pittsburgh.
If Alabama and Clemson hold their current positions through the final two weeks of the regular season and the conference championship games, they would meet in a national semifinal game in the Peach Bowl on New Year’s Eve.
That, of course, would be a rematch of last season’s national championship game, won by Alabama 45-40.
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Ohio State made the most significant move in this week's CFP rankings, jumping from No. 5 to No. 2. While last week's Nos. 2, 3 and 4 teams were losing on Saturday, the Buckeyes were beating Maryland 62-3, the same score by which they beat Nebraska a week earlier.
“As we looked at Ohio State, we see a very talented team that has three wins over current CFP top-25 teams,” selection committee chairman Kirby Hocutt said on a teleconference late Tuesday night, referring to the Buckeyes’ wins over No. 7 Wisconsin, No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 18 Nebraska. “The selection committee is very impressed with the past two games that we’ve seen Ohio State play, their performance on the field. The only loss that Ohio State has is to a CFP top-10 team (No. 8 Penn State), so in the committee’s eyes, Ohio State is deserving of that No. 2 ranking this week.”
Interestingly, Michigan remained in exactly the same position as last week — No. 3 — despite losing at Iowa.
“Even though they lost to an unranked team, Michigan is the only team with three wins against current CFP top-10 teams,” Hocutt said, referring to the Wolverines’ wins over No. 7 Wisconsin, No. 8 Penn State and No. 10 Colorado. “Those are three high-quality wins that the committee places high value in.”
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The Fiesta Bowl, which joins the Peach Bowl as playoff semifinal hosts this season, announced a new title sponsor Tuesday.
Say hello to the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl.
It’s a multi-year deal — good news for the Glendale, Ariz., bowl, which has had two one-year title sponsors since Tostitos ended an 18-year sponsorship (electronics company Vizio for the 2014 season and obstacle race organizer BattleFrog for 2015).
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