College Football Playoff bracket reveal: SMU is in, Alabama and Miami are out

The non-CFP bowl games will be announced Sunday, with an exact time not set.

ESPN’s bracket reveal show is deep into its postgame dissection phase, with the bowls expected to be announced before it concludes this evening.

Some bowl games have already been announced, but a majority will trickle in throughout the day. Official bowl and team social media accounts have been posting announcements as well.

The Orange Bowl (Jan. 9) and the Cotton Bowl (Jan. 10) are semifinal games for this year’s playoff.

The winners of the SMU-Penn State vs. Boise State and Indiana-Notre Dame vs. Georgia quarterfinal games will play in the Orange Bowl.

The winners of the Clemson-Texas vs. Arizona State and Tennessee-Ohio State vs. Oregon quarterfinal games will play in the Cotton Bowl.

Dabo Swinney and Clemson will head to Texas for the first round of the playoff.

Swinney wants two things: One, a win, obviously. Two, he wants to meet Texas’ biggest fan.

“Hopefully I get to meet Matthew McConaughey,” Swinney said on ESPN.

The actor is a frequent sideline guest during Texas games, and makes no effort to hide his enormous fandom.

Georgia backup QB Gunner Stockton provided a jolt for his team when they needed it most in the Southeastern Conference title game.

But was that a pick-me-up, or a sign of things to come?

It’s yet to be determined whether starter Carson Beck will recover from his arm injury in time to play in the Bulldogs’ quarterfinal game on Jan. 1.

Beck went down in the SEC title game after a huge hit. He had to come in for his team’s final play, and could barely lift his right (throwing) arm.

• No. 1 Oregon (13-0, made playoff)
• No. 2 Georgia (11-2, made playoff)
• No. 3 Texas (11-2, made playoff)
• No. 4 Penn State (11-2, made playoff)
• No. 5 Notre Dame (11-1, made playoff)

• No. 6 Ohio State (10-2, made playoff)
• No. 7 Tennessee (10-2, made playoff)
• No. 8 Indiana (11-1, made playoff)
• No. 9 Boise State (12-1, made playoff)
• No. 10 SMU (11-2, made playoff)

• No. 11 Alabama (9-3)
• No. 12 Arizona State (11-2, made playoff)
• No. 13 Miami (10-2)
• No. 14 Mississippi (9-3)
• No. 15 South Carolina (9-3)

Lashlee had a long 12 hours between the end of the ACC championship game and the start of Sunday’s CFP selection show, waiting and wondering if his team had done enough to make the playoff.

He’s a happy man now.

“Really, really happy,” he told ESPN.

Lashlee said he got emotional when the official word came, noting how hard his team has worked to turn SMU’s fortunes around. It’s right back-to-work time for the Mustangs now, as they get ready for a first-round matchup at Penn State.

• No. 16 Clemson (10-3, made playoff)
• No. 17 BYU (10-2)
• No. 18 Iowa State (10-3)
• No. 19 Missouri (9-3)
• No. 20 Illinois (9-3)

• No. 21 Syracuse (9-3)
• No. 22 Army (11-1)
• No. 23 Colorado (9-3)
• No. 24 UNLV (10-3)
• No. 25 Memphis (10-2)

Oregon will have to get past Tennessee or Ohio State in the CFP quarterfinals. Ducks coach Dan Lanning isn’t lamenting the draw that the No. 1 seed got in the field.

“What an opportunity,” Lanning said on ESPN. “Look, in our world, we always talk about red light-green light. Focus on the things you can control. That’s what we’re going to focus on.”

“If our path’s a little bit tougher, kudos to us if we can go through it and take care of business.”

Here are the odds for the first-round games in the CFP, according to BetMGM Sportsbook:

• Notre Dame favored by 8.5 points over Indiana
• Texas favored by 10.5 points over Clemson
• Ohio State favored by 7 points over Tennessee
• Penn State favored by 8.5 points over SMU

CFP committee chairman Warde Manuel, the athletic director at Michigan, says the decision between SMU and Alabama was difficult.

The College Football Playoff starts Dec. 20 and ends Jan. 20. There will be 11 games, all broadcast nationally. Here’s how it’ll work:

First-round games

• Friday, Dec. 20: Indiana at Notre Dame, 8 p.m. (ABC/ESPN)
• Saturday, Dec. 21: SMU at Penn State, noon (TNT); Clemson at Texas, 4 p.m. (TNT); Tennessee at Ohio State, 8 p.m. (ABC/ESPN)

Quarterfinals

• Dec. 31: SMU-Penn State winner vs. Boise State, Fiesta Bowl, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)
• Jan. 1: Clemson-Texas winner vs. Arizona State, Peach Bowl, 1 p.m. (ESPN)
• Jan. 1: Tennessee-Ohio State winner vs. Oregon, Rose Bowl, 5 p.m. (ESPN)
• Jan. 1: Indiana-Notre Dame winner vs. Georgia, Sugar Bowl, 8:45 p.m. (ESPN)

Semifinals

• Jan. 9: Orange Bowl, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)
• Jan. 10: Cotton Bowl, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)

National championship

• Jan. 20: At Atlanta, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Eighth-seeded Ohio State and ninth-seeded Tennessee will meet for only the second time when they play their first-round game in Columbus on Dec. 21.

The Vols beat the Buckeyes 20-14 in the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1, 1996. The winner will get a trip to Pasadena on New Year’s Day to face top-seeded Oregon, which is headed to the Rose Bowl for the ninth time, including five trips since 2010.

The Ducks faced Ohio State in the Granddaddy of Them All 15 years ago, while the Ducks and the Vols have met twice in recent years, with Oregon winning both matchups.

Top-seeded and unbeaten Oregon is the betting favorite to win the CFP national championship, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.

The Ducks are +225, just ahead of Georgia (+350), Texas (+375) and Ohio State (+450).

The rest of the odds: Penn State (+700), Notre Dame (+1200), Tennessee (+2500), SMU (+3500), Clemson (+4000), Arizona State (+4000), Indiana (+5000) and Boise State (+5000).

The Indiana and Notre Dame campuses are separated by 200 miles in the Hoosier State, but the teams haven’t met since 1991 and before that 1958.

Rick Mirer and Jerome Bettis led the seventh-ranked Irish to a 49-27 win in South Bend on an 86-degree September afternoon in ’91.

The temperature will be quite a bit cooler when the teams meet at Notre Dame Stadium Dec. 20 or 21.

The winner plays Georgia. The Bulldogs have played Notre Dame three times, all high-stakes games, and have never faced Indiana.

Every school has a social media team. SMU’s was ready for the playoff, instantly tweeting a clip of “Family Guy” when it was announced as the last at-large team in the CFP field.

“Peter, the horse is here,” Lois Griffin says in the clip.

Indeed, the Mustangs are here.

Alabama and Miami are both out of the College Football Playoff, even though both finished ranked higher than 16th-ranked Clemson.

The ACC champion Tigers got in as the fifth highest-ranked conference champion.

Miami led the nation in offense this year and Alabama played a very tough SEC schedule, but had a particularly bad loss to Oklahoma late in the year.

The Tide was seeking a ninth trip to the CFP. Miami has yet to play in the CFP.

Penn State is the fourth-ranked, but No. 6-seeded team in the playoff. The Nittany Lions will host 11th-seeded SMU.

The Penn State-SMU winner will play No. 3 Boise State in the quarterfinals.

The committee did not penalize SMU for losing the ACC title game to Clemson. The Mustangs were the last at-large selection and Alabama got bumped.

It’s an in-state game, with No. 7 Notre Dame playing host to No. 10 Indiana in a quarterfinal matchup.

The Notre Dame-Indiana winner plays No. 2 Georgia in the quarterfinals.

No. 8 Ohio State (10-2) will host No. 9 Tennessee (10-2) in Round 1 of the playoff.

The winner of that game will play No. 1 Oregon in the quarterfinals.

The teams have played only once before. Tennessee beat Ohio State 20-14 in the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1, 1996.

The first-round home sites are Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame and Ohio State.

Texas will host Clemson in Round 1 of the playoff. The winner will play No. 4 Arizona State in the quarterfinals.

Clemson will be in the playoff as the 16th-ranked team, but the No. 12 seed. They were the fifth highest-ranked conference champion.

The Arizona State Sun Devils (11-2), the surprise winners of the Big 12, are the No. 4 seed in the playoff.

It’s the first playoff trip for the Sun Devils, who were picked last out of 16 teams in the Big 12’s preseason media poll.

The Boise State Broncos (12-1) of the Mountain West are the No. 3 seed in the playoff.

Led by Heisman Trophy hopeful Ashton Jeanty -- his 2,497 yards are nearly 1,000 more than anyone else in the country this season -- the Broncos are in the playoff for the first time.

The Georgia Bulldogs (11-2) of the SEC are the No. 2 seed in the playoff.

This is Georgia’s fourth trip to the playoff, the third in the last four years.

The Oregon Ducks (13-0) of the Big Ten are the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. The Ducks are in the CFP field for the second time.

They beat Florida State in the 2015 semifinals (the 2014 season) and lost that year to Ohio State in the title game.

They’re bidding to become the first 16-0 team in major college football since Yale in 1894.

A 2-hour pregame show on ESPN2 and a 15-minute segment on ESPN of the selection show has been survived.

ESPN says the bracket reveal is moments away.

Clad in Alabama crimson, the former Tide coach Nick Saban made a pitch for Alabama to make it into the bracket over SMU on ESPN’s reveal show.

Saban raised a concern that teams with weak strength of schedules could make the bracket, and even get first-round byes. He said SMU should have had to play their way in by winning the ACC title game.

Clemson goes into the playoff with three losses and that gives the Tigers a chance at an odd piece of history.

There has never been a consensus national champion with three losses.

It happened once, sort of, kind of: In 1981, Nebraska went 9-3 and was declared national champion by what was called the National Championship Foundation.

The College Football Playoff’s 12-team format is officially here. In about 10 minutes, the bracket will be revealed live on ESPN.

Pay close attention to who gets the No. 5 seed. They might have a better path than many realize.

Yes, they’ll have to play in the first round and the top four seeds will not. But they’ll be at home for Round 1, probably a big favorite over the No. 12 seed and will likely get either Boise State or Arizona State in the quarterfinals on a neutral field.

The No. 1 seed, meanwhile, will see a No. 8 or No. 9 seed in the quarterfinals -- potentially a much tougher matchup (think Tennessee or Notre Dame, someone like that).

All 12 teams will be good teams, and nobody will be easy to beat. But the 5 seed might be a better spot to land than you might think.

If Miami doesn’t make the playoff, then quarterback Cam Ward will have a decision to make. Play in a bowl game or start prepping for the NFL draft? If Ward plays, history might await.

He has thrown for 155 touchdown passes in his career at Incarnate Word, Washington State and Miami. That’s tied for the most by anyone in Division 1 (FBS and FCS) history; Case Keenum threw 155 in his career at Houston. Either way, Keenum’s record is likely in serious jeopardy.

Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel has thrown for 153 touchdowns in his career at UCF, Oklahoma and with the Ducks. So he’s also in line to break the Division I record.

If the Ducks go deep in the CFP, Gabriel might also pass the all-time, all-division leader. John Matocha has the NCAA record of 162 touchdown passes in his career at Division II’s Colorado School of Mines.

There’s a chance first-round playoff games could be hosted by Ohio State, Penn State, Indiana and Notre Dame.

Bundle up.

It’s way too early for any sort of accurate weather forecasting, but based on what the long-range projections say it’s a safe bet that game-time temperatures on all four of those campuses could be somewhere in the 30s.

This wasn’t an issue for the CFP in the 10 years of the previous model — four teams, three games, three sites a year. Of those 30 games, 21 were either in domes or roofed stadiums and the other nine were played outside in Florida or California.

The College Football Playoff starts Dec. 20 and ends Jan. 20. There will be 11 games, all broadcast nationally. Here’s how it’ll work:

First-round games

• Friday, Dec. 20: Game at 8 p.m. (ABC/ESPN)
• Saturday, Dec. 21: Games at noon (TNT), 4 p.m. (TNT) and 8 p.m. (ABC/ESPN)

Quarterfinals

• Dec. 31: Fiesta Bowl, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)
• Jan. 1: Peach Bowl, 1 p.m. (ESPN)
• Jan. 1: Rose Bowl, 5 p.m. (ESPN)
• Jan. 1: Sugar Bowl, 8:45 p.m. (ESPN)

Semifinals

• Jan. 9: Orange Bowl, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)
• Jan. 10: Cotton Bowl, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)

National championship

• Jan. 20: At Atlanta, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham tells ESPN this morning that he thinks the Sun Devils should be the No. 3 seed and get to play in the Fiesta Bowl — in their home state — in the quarterfinals.

“I think we should be the 3 seed,” Dillingham said. “Hopefully that puts us in the Fiesta Bowl, which would be unbelievable for the state, unbelievable for the Fiesta Bowl to have a local team in it. It’d be something that would be remembered forever here in the state.”

If the AP Top 25 is a sign, choosing between Alabama and SMU will be a brutal task for the committee.

The margin between Alabama and SMU in the AP Top 25: one point.

Alabama got 838 points from the 62 voters in the AP poll. SMU got 837.

The final AP Top 25 of the regular season is out. No surprise: Oregon is No. 1.

The rest of the top 12: No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Penn State, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 7 Tennessee, No. 8 Boise State, No. 9 Indiana, No. 10 Arizona State, No. 11 Alabama and No. 12 SMU. ACC champion Clemson is No. 13.

So ... what would that mean?

If the committee ranks the top 12 the same way as AP voters did this morning, these would be the matchups (remember, the four highest-ranked conference champions get the top-four seeds, and the fifth highest-ranked conference champion — No. 13 Clemson — makes the field.)

• No. 12 Clemson at No. 5 Notre Dame. Winner gets No. 4 Arizona State.
• No. 11 Alabama at No. 6 Texas. Winner gets No. 3 Boise State.
• No. 10 Indiana at No. 7 Penn State. Winner gets No. 2 Georgia.
• No. 9 Tennessee at No. 8 Ohio State. Winner gets No. 1 Oregon.

The first team out in this scenario: SMU.

The Top 25 teams in The Associated Press college football poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Dec. 7, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote, and previous ranking:

It’s a 12-team field for the College Football Playoff. That doesn’t mean the top 12 teams in Sunday’s final rankings will get into the field. In fact, that probably won’t happen.

The five highest-ranked conference champions are guaranteed spots in the field, and the next seven highest-ranked teams also get in. That means if one or more of the highest-ranked conference champions are ranked lower than No. 12, some of the teams in the top 12 will get bumped from the tournament.

The expectation this year is that the Big 12 winner won’t be ranked in the top 12, so the No. 12 team – it was Miami in the most recent ranking – would be out of the tournament.

Another nuance: the four top-ranked conference champions will have the top four seeds. That means Boise State (which almost certainly won’t crack the top 4) will be seeded no worse than No. 4. And Notre Dame, since it isn’t in a conference, can’t be seeded higher than No. 5.

Seeds 1, 2, 3 and 4 get first-round byes. Seeds 5-12 will play first-round games with 5-8 hosting. There is no reseeding; the bracket will be set Sunday afternoon.

The No. 1 seed will play the 8 vs. 9 winner, the No. 2 seed will play the 7 vs. 10 winner, the No. 3 seed will play the 6 vs. 11 winner and the No. 4 seed will play the 5 vs. 12 winner.

There are 13 members of the CFP selection committee. It is chaired by Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel.

The other committee members:

• Chris Ault, former Nevada coach
• Chet Gladchuk, athletic director at Navy
• Jim Grobe, former Wake Forest coach
• Randall McDaniel, former Arizona State player
• Gary Pinkel, former Missouri and Toledo coach
• Mack Rhoades, athletic director at Baylor
• Mike Riley, former Nebraska and Oregon State coach
• David Sayler, athletic director at Miami of Ohio
• Will Shields, former Nebraska player
• Kelly Whiteside, former sportswriter at USA Today, Newsday and Sports Illustrated
• Carla Williams, athletic director at Virginia
• Hunter Yurachek, athletic director at Arkansas

ESPN’s selection show will begin at noon Eastern. It’ll last four hours, and that’s not anywhere close to the total coverage.

Here’s the big headline: Within the first 30 minutes or so of that show starting, you’ll know who made the 12-team field. Within the first hour, you’ll know the full CFP top 25.

There’s a two-hour pre-selection show that starts at 10 a.m. on ESPN2 and ESPNU, and then three hours of post-show dissection from 4-7 p.m., split between ESPN and ESPN2.

There will also be two-hour shows on SEC Network (starting at 6 p.m.) and ACC Network (starting at 8 p.m.) discussing all things playoffs and bowls from those conferences. And back on ESPN starting at 8:30 p.m., there’s another 2-1/2 hour show discussing all the day’s selections. If all that still wasn’t enough, ESPN is planning digital shows at 1 p.m. (selection reaction) and 3 p.m. (the championship picture) on its College Football YouTube channel and Facebook page.