IRVING, Texas (AP) — The College Football Playoff is set: Cincinnati will play Alabama in the Cotton Bowl and Michigan will face Georgia in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Eve.
Fourth-seeded Cincinnati becomes the first team to break through the CFP’s glass ceiling and make college football’s final four from a non-Power Five conference. The Bearcats won the American Athletic Conference and head into the postseason as the only unbeaten team in the country. Their reward will be a matchup with the defending national champions.
The Crimson Tide is in the playoff for the seventh time in its eight-year history.
Michigan is making its first appearance in the playoff. Georgia is in for the second time, and first since the 2017 season.
Notre Dame against Oklahoma in Fiesta Bowl
UNDATED (AP) — Fifth-ranked Notre Dame will face No. 9 Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl in a matchup of two teams that just missed the College Football Playoff.
The Fighting Irish finished fifth in the final CFP rankings after coach Brian Kelly left for LSU last week. Defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman was promoted to head coach on Friday.
The Cowboys came up inches short of a possible CFP berth when Dezmon Jackson was stopped just short of the end zone pylon in the final seconds of a 21-16 loss to Baylor in the Big 12 championship game.
Among the other bowl matchups:
— No. 6 Baylor and No. 8 Mississippi will match up in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day.
— Utah will face Ohio State in the 108th edition of the Rose Bowl.
— Pittsburgh’s reward for its first ACC championship is a date with Michigan State in the Peach Bowl.
— No. 12 BYU draws upstart UAB as Independence Bowl opponent.
— Mountain West Conference champion Utah State will face Oregon State of the Pac-12 Conference in the inaugural LA Bowl at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
Alabama reclaims top spot in poll
UNDATED (AP) — Alabama will head into the postseason the same way it started the regular season — as No. 1 in the nation.
The Crimson Tide reclaimed the top spot in The Associated Press college football poll after beating previously top-ranked Georgia. Defending national champion Alabama, which was No. 1 for the first six weeks of this season, jumped three spots after dominating the Southeastern Conference title game. The Bulldogs fell to No. 3.
In between, Michigan was No. 2 for a second straight week after winning the Big Ten Conference championship for the first time since 2004. Cincinnati slipped a spot to No. 4. The Bearcats are the only remaining unbeaten FBS team in the country.
Oklahoma hires Clemson’s Brent Venables to replace Riley
UNDATED (AP) — Oklahoma has hired Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables as its head coach to replace Lincoln Riley. Venables was on Oklahoma’s staff under Bob Stoops as co-defensive coordinator from 1999 to 2003 and defensive coordinator from 2004 to 2011. At Clemson, he won the Broyles Award in 2016 as the nation’s top assistant.
In other college football news:
— No. 16 Louisiana-Lafayette has promoted co-offensive coordinator and former Ragin’ Cajuns quarterback Michael Desormeaux to head coach. The announcement comes less than 24 hours after Billy Napier won his final game as Cajuns coach in the Sun Belt Conference championship game against Appalachian State.
