2015-16 College Football Playoff Semifinal pairings announced

By Kevin Kelley -

The 2015-16 College Football Playoff Semifinal pairings have been announced. Clemson, the top-ranked team, will play No. 4 Oklahoma in the Capital One Orange Bowl.

Alabama, the No. 2 team, will play No. 3 Michigan State in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl.

“We now have the full body of work to evaluate all of the teams,” said selection chairman Jeff Long. “The committee viewed Clemson and Alabama as clear-cut. We had a lengthy discussion about Michigan State and Oklahoma. The committee saw those two teams as very closely matched. They are both conference champions and both 4-0 against top 25 teams. Ultimately Michigan State’s two wins against top ten teams gave them the edge.”

The College Football Playoff Selection Committee will announce the four remaining bowls in the “New Year’s Six” around 3pm ET. Those bowls are as follows: Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl, Rose Bowl, and Allstate Sugar Bowl.

The remaining bowls will be announced throughout the day and finalized by this evening.

Capital One Orange Bowl
Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015 – 4 or 8pm ET, ESPN
(1) Clemson vs. (4) Oklahoma

Goodyear Cotton Bowl
Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015 – 4 or 8pm ET, ESPN
(2) Alabama vs. (3) Michigan State

Bowl Schedule

Comments (11)

Why did they just not leave it the way it was, Clemson, Bama, Oklahoma & then Michigan St? The Spartans are the only team that does not pass the eyeball test & they jumped the Sooners, wow. The Big-12 better get a Championship game fast cause if Stanford would of had an impressive win over USC I could of seen Stanford in & not Oklahoma, like last year with TCU. Congras to all four teams, I think it will be Bama vs Oklahoma in championship game with the Sooners barely winning. Even though magic Nick luvs revenge games.

Because if you look at MSU’s resume, it’s significantly better than OU’s, has an extra game, and it really isn’t even close.

Yeah, extra game granted! Looking at the schedules I see what you mean, not sure about the significantly better than Oklahoma’s schedule, they are pretty close.

Rankings based upon final standings:

OU – W @ #’s 11,16, vs. #17, defeated 9 bowl teams
MSU – W @ #’s 7, 14, vs. #’s 5, 15, defeated 10 bowl teams

If that’s not a better resume I don’t know what is.

Better resume yes, not significantly better though. You forgot the win @ #23 Tennessee for Oklahoma which brings it up to defeated 10 bowl teams as well. Michigan St struggled with most teams they played, meanwhile Oklahoma seems to smash theirs, I just think the Sooners look more impressive right now.

I did forget they were ranked (being that they have 4 loses), but included them under the bowl teams. UT, ISU, and KU are not going bowling, so 9.