Barring a major miracle short of cancelling Christmas, the entire college football world knew that an undefeated LSU, Ohio State and defending national champion and also unbeated Clemson were in. hands down. The only questions were who would be seeded one and two and which team would claim the fourth and final spot in the bracket.
And after No. 5 Utah’s loss to Oregon — which at one time sat at No. 6 in the College Football Playoff rankings before encountering chaos that sent the Ducks tumbling back into the second ten — in the Pac-12 Championship, it opened up the door for the Big 12 champion to seize the fourth Playoff spot.