GRAPEVINE, Texas – The Buckeyes tried to make a statement in Saturday night’s 59-0 win over Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game and the College Football Playoff selection committee heard them.
Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon and Florida State have been selected to play in the first playoff.
Alabama is the top seed and will play No. 4 Ohio State in one semifinal at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Oregon is the second seed and will play third-seeded Florida State in the other semifinal at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Both games will be played New Year’s Day.
The winners will advance to the national championship game to be played Jan. 12 at the home of the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas.
A 12-member selection committee set the field, revealing its selections Sunday morning. Later in the day, it was expected to complete its full top 25 and make the matchups for the other four New Year’s bowls that are part of the playoff rotation.
Committee chairman Jeff Long said the top three were clear and the final spot came down to a debate between the Buckeyes and Big 12 co-champs Baylor and TCU.
Among those three, Long said: “It was decisive for Ohio State.”
The College Football Playoff is replacing the Bowl Championship Series, which matched the top two teams in the country in a national championship game.
The playoff contenders did not make it easy on the committee by all winning on Saturday.
Ohio State has come from the farthest during the season, overcoming an early loss to Virginia Tech to make a strong run.
“We think they overcame that with nine wins against bowl-eligible teams,” Long said.