Arya News - The 12-team field is set.
The College Football Playoff selection committee decided to move Miami ahead of Notre Dame at the last minute.
After keeping the Hurricanes behind the Fighting Irish for weeks, the people in charge of the 12-team bracket moved the Hurricanes ahead of Notre Dame on Sunday and into the postseason.
The Fighting Irish fell out of the playoff entirely as Alabama stayed in the field despite losing the SEC title game to Georgia on Saturday. The Crimson Tide are the first three-loss team to make the field as an at-large.
Notre Dame had been ahead of Miami for every iteration of playoff rankings this season despite losing to the Hurricanes in Week 1. The two teams finished with the same 10-2 record and neither played on conference championship weekend. It would have made much more sense for Miami to move ahead of Notre Dame in the penultimate rankings on Tuesday if the committee was going to make this decision. Instead, the committee waited until the final set of rankings.
Miami"s inclusion into the field means the ACC did not get left out of the playoff entirely.
Miami didn"t win the ACC title or even play in the ACC title game. The 10-2 Hurricanes lost out on a five-way tiebreaker for second place in the conference to a five-loss Duke team. The Blue Devils took down Virginia in the ACC championship game on Saturday night but ended up ranked behind five other conference champions in the CFP rankings.
The field is made up of the five highest-ranked conference champions and seven at-large teams. American champion Tulane, Big Ten champion Indiana, Big 12 champion Texas Tech, SEC champion Georgia and Sun Belt champion James Madison got the automatic berths. JMU is the first Sun Belt team to ever make a College Football Playoff.
College Football Playoff field
First-round byes
No. 1 Indiana (13-0)
No. 2 Ohio State (12-1)
No. 3 Georgia (12-1)
No. 4 Texas Tech (12-1)
First-round games
No. 12 James Madison (12-1) at No. 5 Oregon (11-1)
No. 11 Tulane (11-2) at No. 6 Ole Miss (11-1)
No. 10 Miami (10-2) at No. 7 Texas A&M (11-1)
No. 9 Alabama (10-3) at No. 8 Oklahoma (10-2)