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LSU, Ohio State top seeds for the College Football Playoff

Posted at 12:07 PM, Dec 08, 2019
and last updated 2019-12-08 14:58:44-05

The College Football Playoff picture is set.

The top four teams in the playoff field are LSU, Ohio State, Clemson and Oklahoma, in that order, the selection committee announced Sunday.

In the semifinals, LSU (13-0) will face Oklahoma (12-1) at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, while Ohio State (13-0) will take on Clemson (13-0) at the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Both of those games will be December 28.

The national championship game is January 13 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

Before Sunday's reveal, the top four teams in the ranking had been Ohio State, LSU, Clemson and Georgia. Fifth through seventh were Utah, Oklahoma and Baylor, respectively.

The landscape started shifting Friday night, when Utah lost to Oregon in the Pac-12 title game. Then on Saturday Oklahoma beat Baylor to win the Big 12 title. Later that day the Sooners got some help from LSU when the Tigers dominated Georgia to win the SEC championship.

Ohio State had to come from behind to defeat Wisconsin and win the Big Ten championship, while Clemson routed Virginia to win the ACC title.

This marks the fifth consecutive appearance in the playoff for Clemson, the defending national champion.

It's Ohio State's third playoff appearance. The Buckeyes, as the No. 4 seed, won the inaugural playoff in the 2014-2015 season.

This will be the third meeting between Oklahoma and LSU. The last time the Sooners and Tigers played each other was in January 2004 in the BCS National Championship Game, when LSU defeated Oklahoma 21-14.

This will be the fourth matchup between Clemson and Ohio State -- all coming in bowl games. Clemson has won all three of the previous meetings, including a 31-0 blowout of the Buckeyes in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl semifinal.

Oklahoma is the playoff for the third consecutive year and the fourth time overall.

It's LSU's first time in the College Football Playoff.

This also marks the first time in the playoff's history that perennial power Alabama hasn't been among the four final teams.

The College Football Playoff has been around since the 2014 season, replacing the Bowl Championship Series. The playoff teams are selected by a 13-person committee, which ranks teams based on performance, strength of schedule, conference championships won, head-to-head results and comparing results against common opponents.