Roughly 100 anxious football players grasped their seats as they viewed the final spot in the College Football Playoff. The Oklahoma Football meeting room filled with silence just moments after the third selection. Wide eyes then stared at the glowing projector in front of them displaying ESPN analysts preparing to announce the final spot. For what seemed like years to these competitors, the team was finally revealed: Oklahoma Sooners. The team erupted in excitement hugging one another, and they all held a genuine smile in celebration of their immense success.

This past Sunday, Dec 2nd, the College Football Playoff teams were finally announced. Fol

lowing all the conference championships, four teams seemed to prove worthy towards the committee. 11:30 a.m. that Sunday, Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame and Oklahoma made the cut. The two teams out were Georgia and Ohio State (OSU). Despite OSU’s victory against Northwestern in the Big Ten Title Game, it wasn’t enough for a playoff berth. Down south, Georgia was leading Alabama in the SEC Championship, but fell behind in the end after Crimson Tide’s backup QB, Jalen Hurts, went in. The top three teams still remain undefeated in Alabama, Clemson and Notre Dame (ND). According to VegasInsider.com, Alabama’s odds to win is 1/2, followed by Clemson’s 7/2 odds and ND’s minuscule 9/1.

Throughout the regular season, Alabama was extremely dominate, winning every game with flying colors. The college football world is leaning towards the Crimson Tide to win it all for the second year in a row. In the second slot, the Clemson Tigers sit undefeated with a strong 32 point win performance in the ACC Championship against Pittsburgh. With just one close game against Syracuse, Clemson looks strong going into the playoff. Sitting at third is Notre Dame and after sneaking past USC in their final regular season game, the committee kept them at three. Finally, just barely sneaking in, is offensive powerhouse Oklahoma. The Sooners blew past Texas in the Big Twelve Championship and looks to demonstrate their explosive offense against Alabama.

Every year the committee disappoints some of the close cut teams. In the fifth spot, Georgia sat as the first team out after they took a loss in a close battle against the Crimson Tide. Following Georgia is Ohio State who stayed put at sixth for the second week in a row. With OSU out of the picture, their head coach, Urban Meyer, decided to announce on the morning of December 4th that he’d be stepping down from the program. Meyer had a cyst on his brain that caused severe head pains and this was his reasoning for the decision. Unfortunately for University of Central Florida (UCF) fans, despite getting their 25th straight win in the AAC title game against Memphis, they were put at the number eight spot in the rankings. This is the second year that UCF has gone undefeated and didn’t make the final four, showing the committee doesn’t believe their strength of schedule is enough to place them in the playoff.

This New Years, all of the hype around the playoff will finally be settled. Make your predictions and projections as the football nation gets ready for bowl season.