The College Football Playoff starts on New Year's Eve, with national semifinalists Clemson and Oklahoma facing off in the Orange Bowl semifinal and Alabama and Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl semifinal.
The Playoff's selection committee released its final batch of rankings on Sunday. Newly crowned ACC champion Clemson is the postseason tournament's No. 1 team, followed by Alabama, Michigan State and Oklahoma.
The Orange Bowl will be a match of familiar postseason adversaries. Clemson and Oklahoma played last season in the Russell Athletic Bowl, with the Tigers winning in a 40-6 romp. This year's game should look drastically different, however, as both teams have different starting quarterbacks and are far better than they were last season. The all-time series between the schools is an even 2-2.
The Cotton Bowl features less head-to-head history. Alabama is 1-0 all-time against Michigan State, having put a 49-7 destruction on the Spartans in the 2010 season's Capital One Bowl. Michigan State won last year's non-Playoff Cotton Bowl against Baylor in a 42-41 thriller. In another subplot, Tide coach Nick Saban used to coach the Spartans.
The other four New Year's Six Bowls will be filled by a cast of Playoff contenders who just narrowly missed.
| College Football Playoff | |||||
| National Championship | No. 1 Clemson | No. 2 Alabama | January 11 | Glendale, AZ | Cotton winner vs. Orange winner |
| Cotton | No. 2 Alabama | No. 3 Michigan State | December 31 | Arlington, TX | Playoff rankings top 4 |
| Orange | No. 1 Clemson | No. 4 Oklahoma | December 31 | Miami | Playoff rankings top 4 |
| New Year's Six bowls | |||||
| Fiesta | No. 8 Notre Dame | No. 7 Ohio State | January 1 | Glendale, AZ | At-large |
| Rose | No. 5 Iowa | No. 6 Stanford | January 1 | Pasadena, CA | Big Ten 1 vs. Pac-12 1 |
| Sugar | No. 16 Oklahoma State | No. 12 Ole Miss | January 1 | New Orleans | Big 12 1 vs. SEC 1 |
| Peach | No. 9 Florida State | No. 18 Houston | December 31 | Atlanta | At-large |
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