As the college football regular season dwindles to an end, the college football selection committee decided that Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, and Washington were the teams that earned a spot in the four team playoff for the National Championship.

No. 1 Alabama will play No. 4 Washington on December 31 in the Peach Primesport Bowl and No. 2 Ohio State will play No. 3 Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl. It was an unusual year in the world of College Football considering Alabama is the only undefeated team remaining, but most New Trier students agree the selection committee got it right.

“I think every team in the playoff deserves to be there,” said Junior John Robinson, “Maybe Michigan or Penn State  could have a chance to play for the National Championship, but it’s hard to make it there if a team has two losses.”

Alabama is the clear favorite to repeat as champions considering they haven’t been challenged by any SEC team this year. Even though Alabama has seemed unbeatable this year, Washington could be the team to overthrow the defending National Champions.

Washington doesn’t have the strongest schedule, but they have dominated opposing teams including an impressive 41-10 romping of Colorado in the Pacific-12 Championship game.

“The Alabama and Washington game will be exciting,” said Robinson, “It will be Washington’s first true test this year and it will be interesting to see how the handle Alabama’s tough defense.”

The driving force behind Washington’s offense this year has been heisman contender and quarterback Jake Browning. Browning has been electric this year for the Huskies throwing for a total of 3,162 yards with 40 touchdowns.

The other semifinal will be a battle between two veteran quarterbacks. Ohio State’s JT Barrett and Clemson’s Deshaun Watson are both heisman contenders with experience in big time games.

“Clemson vs Ohio State will be a far better game than the other semifinal,” said junior Costa Pavlopoulos, “Each team has an extremely high powered offense that I bet the game will come down to the last play.”

Ohio State is coming off a huge 30-27 win against a very talented Michigan team and Clemson hopes to make it to the National Championship for the second straight year after a 42-35 victory against No. 18 Virginia Tech.

College football has had the Bowl Championship system for over a hundred years, but this is just the third year where there has been a playoff to determine who reigns supreme in the world of college football.

Every year the college football selection committee has to make the tough decision of determining which teams have earned a spot to play for the National Championship. The committee is made up of twelve members. They make their decision based on criteria including strength of schedule, head-to-head competition, and comparative outcomes of common opponents.

Many people believe that the college football playoff should be expanded to six or eight teams so more teams have a chance to win a National Championship.

Senior Kyle Retondo claims that an eight team playoff would be far more entertaining than a four team playoff.

“If there was an eight team playoff there would be a chance for an upset instead of seeing the same four teams win the championship every year.”

Robinson disagrees claiming that college football is special because every regular season game matters. “College football is entertaining because every team has so much to lose every single saturday. It is nearly impossible to make the playoff when a team has one or two losses so it makes every game a must win.”

The National Championship will be played on Jan. 9 after the semifinals on Dec. 31. Other exciting games include Penn State vs USC in the Rose Bowl, Florida State vs Michigan in the Cotton Bowl, and Auburn vs Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl.