Georgia, Michigan, TCU and Ohio State were chosen Sunday for the College Football Playoff, giving the Big Ten multiple teams in the four-team field for the first time.
Top-ranked Georgia — the Southeastern Conference's Bulldogs are the reigning national champions — and fourth-seeded Ohio State will meet Dec. 31 at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta. Second-seeded Michigan and third-ranked TCU, the lone first-timer in the field, will play the same day at the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona.
The national championship game is scheduled for Jan. 10 at Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and it could be a rematch of Big Ten rivals Michigan and Ohio State. The rivalry dates to 1902, but the Wolverines and Buckeyes have never met outside of their annual regular-season game.
With some drama, but not much controversy, the CFP selection committee's top four fell into place over conference championship weekend. The most interesting part of the unveiling was whether the committee would pair Michigan and Ohio State in the semifinals and if Alabama of the powerful SEC might be able to slip in as the first two-loss team in the field since the four-team format debuted in 2014.
In the end, the committee delivered no surprises.
Committee chairman Boo Corrigan, the athletic director at North Carolina State, said Ohio State's big wins against Penn State and Notre Dame helped push the Buckeyes in over Alabama.
"As we looked at the total body of work, the committee was comfortable with Ohio State at No. 4 and Alabama at (No.) 5," he said in an interview with ESPN.
Corrigan also said the committee did not make any special effort to avoid having a rematch of Ohio State and Michigan in a semifinal.
Georgia (13-0) won the Southeastern Conference championship game in a rout of LSU on Saturday, and soon after that, Michigan (13-0) similarly took the the Big Ten title by running away from Purdue.
TCU (12-1) took its first loss of the season in the Big 12 title game to start the day, falling in overtime to Kansas State. The loss made it an uneasy night for the Horned Frogs, but in the end they had already built enough equity during their improbable season to stay in the top four.
"I was really nervous," TCU quarterback Max Duggan said about watching ESPN's slow rollout of the pairings Sunday afternoon.
The Frogs had nothing to fear. They had already built enough equity to stay in the top four, and they erupted with cheers of relief at their watch party in Fort Worth, Texas, when it became official.
Ohio State (11-1) was given a second life in the playoff race when the University of Southern California lost the Pac-12 title game in lopsided fashion to Utah Friday night. A week after coach Ryan Day's Buckeyes lost at home to Michigan, they slipped into the final playoff spot, the best of a flawed batch of contenders.
Alabama (10-2) was fifth in the committee rankings, missing the CFP for just the second time in the event's nine-year history. The Crimson Tide, with a little lobbying from coach Nick Saban in a media tour over the weekend, were hoping to become the first team to defy the two-loss odds.
The committee instead simply moved Ohio State from fifth last week to fourth this week, setting up just the second matchup ever between the Bulldogs and Buckeyes. The only time Georgia and Ohio State have played was in the Citrus Bowl held on New Year's Day in 1993, a 21-14 victory for the Bulldogs.
"They've got a lot of really great players because we recruit a lot of the same kids," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said.
For Georgia, it is the second straight CFP appearance and third overall. This time, though, the Bulldogs enter as the No. 1 team and clear favorite after after last season's national title and an undefeated mark so far this season.
They will try to become the first team to repeat as College Football Playoff champion.
Ohio State is making its fifth playoff appearance. The only other time the Buckeyes were the fourth seed was 2014, when they won their most recent national title.
Michigan is in for the second time, again as the second seed after losing to Georgia in the Orange Bowl semifinal last season.
TCU becomes just the 13th school to make the playoff. That lack of variety is one of the main reasons the CFP will be expanding to 12 teams in the 2024 season.
The Horned Frogs, whose only national title came in 1938, have never played Michigan.
The top four matched the latest AP Top 25 released Sunday.
The Buckeyes were elevated by USC’s downfall, with Day and his team back in Columbus as others played for league titles.
“How we got here, at this point, I guess doesn’t really matter now that we’re here,” the Ohio State coach said.
Georgia is a 6 1/2-point favorite against Ohio State, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Michigan is favored by 9 1/2 points over TCU.
Corrigan said the 13-member panel went through its usual process of grouping teams in threes to compare them for the final rankings, but not for long.
“I can’t actually remember which team got pulled in for the third, but as we went into it, we wanted to make sure we got those first two set, and then we moved forward,” Corrigan said.
The rest of the New Year’s Six bowls were also set (all rankings are CFP):
No. 6 Tennessee (10-2) and No. 7 Clemson (10-2) in the Orange Bowl on Dec. 30;
No. 5 Alabama (10-2) and No. 9 Kansas State (10-3) in the Sugar Bowl on Dec. 31;
No. 16 Tulane (11-2) and No. 10 USC (11-2) in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2;
No. 8 Utah (10-3) and No. 11 Penn State (10-2) in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 2.