Oregon offensive lineman Iapani Laloulu celebrates after the Big Ten championship NCAA college football game against Penn State, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
College football’s conference shakeup left concerns about two super conferences dominating the playoff field.
They weren’t totally unfounded or 100% borne out. The Big Ten, not the Southeastern Conference, was the biggest winner Sunday. The ACC scored, too.
The Big Ten led the initial 12-team playoff field with four programs making the cut, topped by a No. 1 Oregon (13-0) team that was part of the Pac-12 exodus.
“It’s a great league,” Ducks coach Dan Lanning said. “That was part of the allure of us getting to join this league. I think we’ve obviously only enhanced the league, but it’s got a storied tradition and it’s one we’re really excited to be a part of.
“We’ve been in some tough battles this year because of the good teams that we’ve gotten to play.”
Then came the SEC — and one notable omission. ACC runner-up SMU got the nod over college football blue-blood Alabama, another blemish in Kalen DeBoer’s first season as Nick Saban’s championship-or-bust successor. Another ego blow: The Mustangs are led by Rhett Lashlee, a former offensive coordinator at rival Auburn.
The Big Ten also got in No. 6 seed Penn State (11-2), No. 8 seed Ohio State (10-2) and No. 10 seed Indiana (11-1). The SEC represented well too: No. 2 seed Georgia (11-2), No. 5 seed Texas (11-2) and No. 9 seed Tennessee (10-2).
But the ACC proved it wasn’t a one-bid league.
Clemson (10-3) — the final No. 12 seed with an overall No. 16 CFP ranking — earned the ACC’s automatic bid with a 34-31 win in the title game over No. 11 seed SMU (11-2), which was close enough to impress the playoff committee and help the Mustangs edge out the Crimson Tide.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey had cited the league’s strength of schedule and 8-3 record over the ACC — including wins by Georgia and South Carolina over Clemson — in lobbying efforts.
“This is the strongest league in college football, and it needs to be respected for that,” Sankey told ESPN on Saturday.
The odd man out among Power Four leagues: The Big 12, which unsurprisingly only advanced its champion, Arizona State (11-2) — ranked No. 12 overall by the CFP but awarded the No. 4 seed as the league title winner after beating Iowa State 45-19.
The Sun Devils, who will play the Texas-Clemson winner, get a week off to savor their success after getting picked to finish last in the 16-team league in the preseason media poll.
“Everybody’s telling them how good they are when they go home this week,” Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said. “Hopefully, they can get that flushed out of their minds when we come back on Sunday and realize that we’re still by far the worst team in this playoff, according to what everybody believes. We still have a chip on our shoulders.”
The SEC was left with Alabama, South Carolina and Mississippi on the wrong side of the bubble with three losses apiece. Alabama was actually ranked 11th, Ole Miss 14th and South Carolina 15th.
The Tide will end DeBoer’s first season and the year in Tampa, Florida, against defending national champion Michigan on New Year’s Eve.
Mountain West Conference champion Boise State (12-1) got a No. 3 seed and first-round bye. No. 7 seed Notre Dame (11-1), an independent, had no chance to grab a bye despite a No. 5 final CFP ranking. The Fighting Irish at least get to host a first-round game against the in-state Hoosiers.
Like Arizona State, Indiana was a preseason long shot to make the playoffs.
“We were picked 17th out of 18 teams in the Big Ten,” Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti said. “Our odds of winning the next four games are probably significantly higher than they were of making the college football playoffs in the first place. So we’ve climbed that mountain.”
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By JOHN ZENOR
AP Sports Writer
