Defending national champions. Undefeated and owners of a 28-game winning streak.
The Clemson Tigers are one heck of a No. 3 seed.
Clemson will play second-seeded Ohio State in prime time Dec. 28 in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, looking to make it three national championship in four seasons.
“We’re just excited to be in it,” said Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who has spent much of the last month playing up how his team was being disrespected by being relegated to No. 3 after starting the season No. 1 in the polls.
The other semifinal matches No. 1 LSU and No. 4 Oklahoma.
The selection committee revealed the pairings Sunday and the final four was no surprise. The only mystery involved which team would be the top seed, and the 13-member committee went with Southeastern Conference champion LSU. The Tigers (13-0) will face the Big 12 champion Sooners (12-1) in the Peach Bowl, four hours before the Fiesta Bowl kicks off.
LSU used a convincing victory against Georgia on Saturday to move up. Ohio State (13-0) had been atop the committee’s rankings last week, but the Buckeyes slipped to No. 2 after coming from behind against Wisconsin to win the Big Ten title.
The national championship game is Jan. 13 in New Orleans. The No. 1 seed has yet to win the CFP in five years.
“Anytime, anywhere, anybody, we ready to play,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron said on ESPN.
The Tigers and Buckeyes flip-flopped at No. 1 a couple of times throughout the committee’s six weeks of ranking teams and chairman Rob Mullens said the debate was similar each week.
“These teams were extremely close,” said Mullens, the Oregon athletic director. “The key element the last two weeks was we saw an LSU defense healthy and playing better.”
Pairings for the other New Year’s Six bowls were to be released later Sunday.
The final four fell into place thanks to the favorites winning their conference championship games and Utah losing the Pac-12 title game to Oregon. The Utes had been No. 5. That left three undefeated Power Five champions, a fourth with one loss and nobody else with a legitimate case to claim a spot.
The intrigue was about the top seed, knowing Clemson was likely locked into No. 3. The Tigers have been mauling opponents for the last two months, but the ACC has not provided Clemson any top-flight competition. Ohio State has five victories against CFP-ranked teams, including Wisconsin twice. Clemson’s only win against those teams was its 62-17 victory Saturday against Virginia.
Still, drawing Clemson, with the core of a team that has won 28 straight games, rather than an Oklahoma team with five victories by a touchdown or less certainly seems like a tougher task for the Buckeyes. Clemson (13-0) is making its fifth straight playoff appearance, tying Alabama for the most.
LSU is in the playoff for the first time, the only newbie in the field. The Tigers will likely bring the Heisman Trophy winner with them. Quarterback Joe Burrow capped a record-breaking season by throwing four more touchdown passes against Georgia in the SEC championship.
Ohio State is making its third playoff appearance and first since 2016 after just missing out the previous two seasons. The Buckeyes won the first playoff championship in 2014. Their last appearance came after the 2016 season, when they were shut out by Clemson in the semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl. That was all under coach Urban Meyer. Now Ryan Day leads the Buckeyes, and in his first season as Meyer’s successor has the Buckeyes unbeaten.
’’Do I feel we should have been the 1 seed? Yeah. But LSU’s done an unbelievable job and what Joe (Burrow) has done,” Day said. “At the end of the day, you have to go beat the best to win a national championship, and Clemson certainly is that.”
The Tigers are 3-0 all-time against Ohio State, all in the postseason. The Buckeyes enter the playoff with a 19-game winning streak.
“We’ve played them a couple times, and this is easily the most talented and most complete Ohio State team that we’ve played,” Swinney said.
Oklahoma is in the playoff for the fourth time, but has yet to win a game. This will be the third consecutive year the Sooners face an SEC team.
Oklahoma and LSU have split two previous meetings: The Sooners won the 1950 Sugar Bowl and the Tigers won the BCS championship game at the Sugar Bowl in 2004.
Former Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts is back in the playoff for the fourth straight year, this time with the Sooners after going three times with the Crimson Tide. Hurts follows Heisman winners Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray as quarterback transfers to find success in coach Lincoln Riley’s offense.
LSU and Ohio State are also led by transfer quarterbacks. Burrow started his career at Ohio State before switching schools in 2018. Buckeyes quarterback Justin Fields was at Georgia last season.
Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence led the Tigers to a national championship as a freshman last season, the first time since 1985 that happened.