Alabama vs. Washington in Peach Bowl; Clemson, Ohio State to face off in Fiesta

A surging team that everybody knows about will face a surging team that’s much lesser-known in the Georgia Dome on New Year’s Eve when top-seeded Alabama faces fourth-seeded Washington in a national semifinal of college football’s four-team playoff.

Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide (13-0) won their 25th consecutive contest with Saturday’s 54-16 hammering of Florida in the Southeastern Conference championship game and are the favorites to win a fifth national championship in eight seasons.

The Huskies (12-1) won the Pac-12 championship in Chris Petersen’s third year with Friday night’s 41-10 rout of Colorado, and they are back among the national elite after going just 62-88 the previous 12 seasons.

“Everybody knows about Alabama, and it’s not just one year but every year in terms of how dominant they are,” Petersen said Sunday afternoon during a news conference in Seattle. “We’ll prepare hard. Fortunately the Seahawks are in town, so maybe they’ll scrimmage us to get us ready.”

The Crimson Tide opened Sunday as 14-point favorites over the Huskies in a game that will kick off at 3 p.m. The second semifinal on New Year’s Eve between second-seeded Clemson (12-1) and third-seeded Ohio State (11-1) will take place at the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., and it will start at 7 p.m.

Semifinal winners will play Jan. 9 in Tampa, Fla.

Alabama is the only program to qualify for each of the Football Bowl Subdivision’s first three playoffs. The Crimson Tide were seeded first in the inaugural event two years ago but were upset by Ohio State in a Sugar Bowl semifinal, and they were seeded second last season, when they routed Michigan State in a Cotton Bowl semifinal before outlasting Clemson in the title game.

“I don’t know if we can take anything from those games,” Saban said Sunday on a conference call, “and I don’t think the outcome of those games will have anything to do with the outcome of this game. I do know that we prepared better one year than we did the other, so hopefully we can take something from that to build on.”

This will be Alabama’s first trip to the Peach Bowl, and it’s the first meeting between the Crimson Tide and Washington since the 1986 Sun Bowl, when Alabama thumped the Huskies 28-6 in the final game of the four-year Ray Perkins coaching era in Tuscaloosa.

The top four teams in the final playoff rankings were the same four as last week, with the only change Clemson and Ohio State flipping spots. Clemson earned the Atlantic Coast Conference title Saturday night with a 42-35 win over Virginia Tech, while Ohio State had the weekend off after completing its regular season.

Losing out on the playoff was Penn State, which finished No. 5 in the rankings after winning the Big Ten title Saturday night by rallying from a 28-7 deficit to stun Wisconsin 38-31. The Nittany Lions (11-2) were the only team to defeat Ohio State, but they couldn’t overcome a 42-39 loss at Pittsburgh and a 49-10 shellacking at Michigan in September.

James Franklin’s Nittany Lions are headed to the Rose Bowl, where they will face No. 9 Southern California (9-3) on Jan. 2.

“Our guys would have loved to have been in the playoff, but they also are excited for the opportunity to play in a big bowl game and continue our season,” Franklin said on ESPN. “We’ve had a great season, and I’m really proud of our guys. You can make arguments for and against so many teams, and obviously being the Big Ten champions and winning head to head gave us a lot of value, as did the fact that we’re hot right now.

“You can make arguments a lot of different ways, but we’re appreciative of the opportunity we have.”

Penn State will head to Pasadena, Calif., having won nine straight games, while USC has won eight straight, including a 26-13 victory at Washington on Nov. 12. The Nittany Lions went 7-6 a year ago and lost their fourth straight game in a 24-17 setback against Georgia in the TaxSlayer Bowl.

The other matchups in the “New Year’s Six” bowl games are No. 6 Michigan (10-2) against No. 11 Florida State (9-3) in the Orange Bowl on Dec. 30, and No. 8 Wisconsin (10-3) against No. 15 Western Michigan (13-0) in the Cotton Bowl and No. 14 Auburn (8-4) against No. 7 Oklahoma (10-2) in the Sugar Bowl, both on Jan. 2.

Washington landed the coveted No. 4 spot despite a nonconference schedule that consisted of Rutgers, Idaho and Portland State and ranked 127th in difficulty out of 128 FBS teams.

“Everybody wants to criticize our strength of schedule, but that schedule was made long before I ever got here,” Petersen said. “Everybody is trying to schedule well, and it’s hard to get a good balance. You can think you have a good matchup down the road, but things change. It’s a lot easier said than done.”

The Huskies will face Rutgers, Montana and Fresno State next season but will face Auburn in the 2018 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. They also have BYU scheduled for the 2018-19 seasons and Michigan for the 2020-21 seasons.

Sarkisian factor

Saban hired Steve Sarkisian as an offensive analyst in September, but he does not believe that will provide any edge in preparation for the Huskies. Sarkisian was Washington’s coach from 2009 to 2013, compiling a 34-29 record.

“He hasn’t been there for quite some time,” Saban said. “I know he was involved in recruiting some of these players when he was the coach there, but this is a whole new coaching staff and a whole new system. He’ll have the same role in this game that he’s had in every other game.”

Tide tidbits

Alabama redshirt junior Cooper Bateman, the primary backup to starting quarterback Jalen Hurts, is transferring, according to AL.com. Bateman has completed 12 of 14 passes this season for 119 yards with one touchdown. Alabama’s first bowl opponent was Washington, with the Crimson Tide upsetting the Huskies 20-19 in the Rose Bowl after the 1925 season. Saban said the Tide would probably begin bowl practices Dec. 16.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.