College Football Playoff set with Alabama Crimson Tide as No. 1 seed

The College Football Playoff field is officially set. The No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide will meet the No. 4 Cincinnati Bearcats in the Cotton Bowl and the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines will play the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs in the Orange Bowl.

There's no surprises about the four teams in the field, but there was debate about whether Michigan or Alabama would land in the top spot in the rankings. Michigan dismantled Iowa, 42-3, in the Big Ten Championship and will make their first ever CFB Playoff appearance, but stayed put at No. 2 while the SEC teams swapped spots in the rankings. 

The major shake up from Saturday came when Alabama upset the previously undefeated Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship. The 41-24 win for the Crimson Tide vaulted the team to the top seed and dropped Georgia to No. 3. 

Cincinnati will play the role of Cinderella after the team finished its undefeated regular season with a 35-20 win over Houston to win the American Athletic Conference Championship. The Bearcats are the first team ever from a Group of Five conference to make the CFB Playoff.

Among those left on the outside looking in are the No. 5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who only lost to Cincinnati, and the two-loss Baylor Bears who avenged an early season loss to Oklahoma State with a win in the Big 12 Championship and also have victories over Oklahoma and BYU.