Undefeated Oregon earned the No. 1 overall seed in the first 12-team College Football Playoff field announced Sunday, while SMU — despite a loss in the ACC championship game — nudged out Alabama to earn the final spot.
No. 2 seed Georgia (11-2), No. 3 seed Boise State (12-1) and No. 4 seed Arizona State (11-2) were awarded first-round byes, guaranteed to the four highest-rated conference champions.
Clemson (10-3), which unexpectedly won the ACC title on a last-second 56-yard field goal, missed out on a first-round bye and was seeded No. 12. The Tigers will play at No. 5 seed Texas (11-2).
The other first-round matchups are No. 11 seed SMU (11-2) at No. 6 seed Penn State (11-2), No. 10 seed Indiana (11-1) at No. 7 Notre Dame (11-1), and No. 9 seed Tennessee (10-2) at No. 8 seed Ohio State (10-2).
Those first-round games will be played Dec. 20 and Dec. 21 at home sites, with all four home teams favored to win by a touchdown or more, according to ESPN BET.
THE BRACKET IS SET ✍️
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— ESPN (@espn) December 8, 2024
The biggest debate entering Sunday’s reveal was what the committee would do with SMU. Headed into the ACC championship game, the Mustangs were ranked No. 8 and went undefeated in league play. SMU coach Rhett Lashlee and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips insisted that should be enough to make it regardless of what happened against Clemson.
CFP selection committee chair Warde Manuel said during the ESPN selection show it was “quite a debate” between SMU and Alabama for the final at-large spot.
“We value strength of schedule,” Manuel said. “That’s why Alabama is a three-loss team ranked ahead of other teams that have two losses. It is something we talked about quite a bit. But in the balance of it and the way SMU played in that game, losing on the last-second field goal, great win by Clemson, great game. We just felt that in this particular case, SMU still had the nod above Alabama. But it’s no disrespect to Alabama’s strength of schedule. It’s merely looking at the entire body of work for both teams.”
Though the committee had said teams should not be punished for losing in a conference championship game, it left itself wiggle room by saying much of that would be determined based on the game itself.
“I think what we did is and what we said is, [for] those teams, we’re going to look at these last games and use it as a data point to determine how we will rank teams,” Manuel said. “If you look at those games that were played very closely, those teams weren’t penalized in the terminology that people use.
“… SMU played a game against Clemson and lost by three. For us, it just came down to watching the games. We watched those games together, seeing the outcome of those games and how those teams played. They earned the right to be in those conference championships, and we value watching those games and seeing the results and the outcome.”
SMU trailed Clemson by 17 points before rallying to tie the game with 16 seconds left. Clemson, however, got into field goal range in two plays and won 34-31 to earn the ACC’s automatic berth. Afterward, Lashlee said it would be “criminal” and “wrong on so many levels” if the committee chose to leave SMU out of the playoff.
“We were on pins and needles watching [the selection show],” Lashlee told ESPN on Sunday. “… Until we saw SMU on there, you’re just hanging on the edge. Just really, really happy. Thankful to the committee for rewarding our guys for their total body of work, for their consistency and performance, how they played throughout the year.
“We had probably our worst quarter of football last night in the first quarter, but the way our team responded, I think, just shows the championship makeup of our team. Thankful for that and an opportunity to keep playing.”
Alabama (9-3), meanwhile, did not play Saturday but had been the last team in the field in the penultimate rankings. The Crimson Tide were ranked No. 11 in the final rankings.
A quick schedule comparison shows Alabama with the edge over SMU in a few categories — ranking higher than SMU in strength of record (No. 9; SMU was 15th) and ESPN’s FPI (fourth; SMU ranks No. 13).
Said Lashlee: “We’re a team that has a chance to compete for this championship. And to some degree, I think we’re a little bit America’s team after last night.”
While Alabama has a 41-34 victory over SEC champion Georgia and two other Top 25 wins, the Crimson Tide have three losses, including two to .500 teams — 40-35 to Vanderbilt and an ugly 24-3 road loss to Oklahoma on Nov. 23.
SMU, meanwhile, has two losses by a combined six points to ACC champ Clemson and 10-2 BYU. While the Mustangs do not have a win over a team currently ranked in the Top 25, they do have a 5-2 record against teams over .500. Alabama is 5-1 against teams over .500, but with two additional losses to 6-6 teams.
“I would say as an athletic director you have to schedule the games that you need to schedule in the nonconference that you feel is best for your team,” said Manuel, who is Michigan’s AD. “I don’t lament the fact that we played Texas at home. I’m not going to lament that we have Oklahoma away next year. I look forward to those games. If we do well, it will give us a boost, and if we don’t, we have to relook at how the season is going and we have to play the games that are in front of us.
“Win the games you’re slated to win, [that] you should win on paper, and then play those other games as they come. But I want to make sure everybody understands: We value people’s strength of schedule. Alabama has three losses. They’re ranked 11th in the country. We have to seed them the way we’re asked to seed them. But Alabama is the 11th-ranked team in the country with a strong schedule, even with some unranked losses.”
The ACC was in a similar situation on Selection Day just last season, when its undefeated conference champion, Florida State, was left out of the four-team playoff in favor of one-loss SEC champion Alabama.
There had been consternation throughout the week that the ACC might once again lose a playoff spot to the SEC and Alabama, but also real questions about the value of conference championship games if teams that are ranked in the top 12 entering those games could drop out with losses.
Among other teams that felt they had a case to make it into the 12-team field, Miami (10-2) was the next team out after Alabama. Manuel said last week that those teams would essentially be locked in with no opportunity to move up into the top 12.
South Carolina finished the season with six straight wins, but it lost head-to-head to Alabama and Ole Miss. Miami, meanwhile, lost two of its final three games but had a better record against bowl teams on the road (4-2) than Alabama (1-3).
Boise State beat UNLV 21-7 in the Mountain West championship game to earn its bye. The Broncos have the 81st-ranked strength of schedule, but they have been in position for a first-round bye since Nov. 19, when they moved ahead of the highest-ranked Big 12 team.
Arizona State, which was ranked No. 15 entering Sunday, beat Iowa State 45-19 in the Big 12 championship game and moved to No. 12 in the rankings, giving it the final first-round bye over the ACC champion Tigers.
The four quarterfinal games will be staged at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl (Boise State vs. the SMU/Penn State winner), Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (Arizona State vs. the Clemson/Texas winner), Rose Bowl presented by Prudential (Oregon vs. the Tennessee/Ohio State winner) and Allstate Sugar Bowl (Georgia vs. the Indiana/Notre Dame winner) on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.
The two semifinal games will take place at the Capital One Orange Bowl and Goodyear Cotton Bowl on Jan. 9 and 10.
The CFP National Championship presented by AT&T is scheduled for Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
