Familiar faces to reach CFP semifinals

The first rotation of the College Football Playoffs is complete.

Each of the New Year’s Six Bowls has hosted a semifinal game. At the end of the 2017 season, national semifinal games will be played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena (Cal.) and the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans (La.) – the sites of the semis after the 2014 regular season.

Since the CFP was put in place, the national champions have been Ohio State, Alabama and Clemson. The Buckeyes and the Crimson Tide may be the top two contenders for the 2017 national title. This writer’s prediction for the other two semifinal spots are Florida State and Oklahoma.

Alabama has reached the national semifinals in all three years – losing to Ohio State in 2014 and defeating Michigan State in 2015 and Washington in 2016. The Buckeyes have been in the Final Four twice – beating the Tide in 2014 and losing to Clemson in 2016.

Florida State has not yet made an appearance in the national semifinals as it has lost its top spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference to Clemson. The Seminoles have participated in New Year’s Six Bowl games the last two seasons – losing to Houston in 2015 and beating Michigan in 2016.

Oklahoma has reached the national semifinals once – losing to Clemson in 2015. The Sooners were the Big 12 Conference representative in a New Year’s Six Bowl game in 2016 where they knocked off Auburn.

Here are my picks for the national semifinal matchups:

Rose Bowl (Monday, Jan. 1): No. 1 seed Ohio State vs. No. 4 seed Oklahoma

Sugar Bowl (Monday, Jan.1): No. 2 seed Alabama vs. No. 3 seed Florida State

The CFP committee must determine the opponents for the other four New Year’s Six Bowl games. The top-rated ACC team not in the semifinals will go to the Orange Bowl. The highest-rated Group of Five champion will fill a slot in the Fiesta Bowl.

Neither the Southeastern Conference, the Big 10 Conference, the Pac-12 Conference or the Big 12 is guaranteed of having another team in a New Year’s Six Bowl if one of its teams is in the semifinals. The reason for no second team is the fact that semifinals will be hosted by the Rose and Sugar Bowls.

It appears that the Big 10 and the Pac-12 are the strongest leagues at the top. Penn State and Wisconsin could join Ohio State from the Big 10 in CFP bowl games. The Pac-12’s Washington, Southern California and Stanford could all be among the top 11 schools in the final CFP standings.

Here are my selections for the other New Year’s Six Bowl games:

Cotton Bowl (Friday, Dec. 29): Washington vs. Penn State

Fiesta Bowl (Saturday, Dec. 30): Stanford vs. South Florida

Orange Bowl (Saturday, Dec. 30): Clemson vs. Wisconsin

Peach Bowl (Monday, Jan. 1): Southern California vs. Florida

LSU may come up just short in its bid at reaching a New Year’s Six Bowl game. LSU will be competing with Auburn and Georgia for the best SEC bowl berth outside of the CFP games. LSU was invited to the Citrus Bowl last year. It is doubtful if the Citrus Bowl would pick the same team in back-to-back seasons.

So, if LSU fails to reach one of the CFP bowls, it could fall to the middle tier of postseason games whose matchups are determined by the SEC office.

Here are my picks for the SEC divisions:

Eastern Division

1. Florida

2. Georgia

3. Tennessee

4. South Carolina

5. Kentucky

6. Vanderbilt

7. Missouri

Western Division

1. Alabama

2. LSU

3. Auburn

4. Texas A&M

5. Arkansas

6. Mississippi State

7. Ole Miss

Tennessee’s Butch Jones and Arkansas’ Bret Bielema will do enough to be back as coach at their respective schools. However, the same scenario will not play out for Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M.