College Football Championship 2016: Playoff Schedule and Bracket Predictions

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the pair of College Football Playoff semifinals is the polar opposite personalities to each matchup.

Clemson and Oklahoma take a pair of the game’s great quarterbacks that anchor two of the top 12 FBS offenses into the Orange Bowl, while Michigan State and Alabama meet in a Cotton Bowl boasting two of the nation’s top defenses.

It’s shaping up as a high-stakes shootout in the matinee and a gritty defensive duel in the finale—a double-date for New Years Eve that should feature plenty of fireworks.

Game	Matchup	Date	Time (ET)	TV	Predicted Winner
Orange Bowl	No. 1 Clemson vs. No. 4 Oklahoma	Dec. 31	4 p.m.	ESPN	Clemson
Cotton Bowl	No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 3 Michigan State	Dec. 31	8 p.m.	ESPN	Alabama

From Approaching Irrelevancy to Stealing the Spotlight

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Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield will have the spotlight to argue his case among the nation’s elite after not receiving an invite the Heisman Trophy ceremony, where Clemson counterpart Deshaun Watson finished third. 

Skip Bayless of ESPN believes Mayfield had quite a worthy case to be included among the finalists for the sport's most prestigious award:

Oklahoma is as hot a team as any, and it enters the playoff favored to upset Clemson—college football’s last unbeaten—in a rematch of a bowl game less than 12 months ago in which the Tigers trumped the Sooners, 40-6.

The difference between then and now? Mayfield. 

After transferring from Texas Tech after one year, Oklahoma fought valiantly, but unsuccessfully, to get Mayfield eligible in 2014. And their play this year showed why.

Last year’s Sooners were stagnant on offense and irrelevant in their own conference, but enter Mayfield, and a resurgent Oklahoma is on the cusp of reaching its first national title game since 2008.

“I don’t think you can overstate how important Baker has been to this team,” Sooners head coach Bob Stoops said, per Matt Hayes of Sporting News, the outlet for which Mayfield was named the Player of the Year.

However, as lofty as the late-season praise has been for Mayfield and the Sooners, they still played a weak out-of-conference schedule and within the Big 12 that last year was snubbed from the playoff for such. 

Stewart Mandel of Fox Sports offered perspective on that topic, while noting that they’ll face a seventh-ranked ranked Clemson defense that is assuredly the best Oklahoma will have seen to this point:

"

Ultimately, it's unrealistic to think the Sooners will rack up 550 yards against Clemson, so the Orange Bowl may come down to whether [Sooners linebacker] Eric Striker and the OU defense can contain Deshaun Watson the way they did several productive Big 12 quarterbacks. ... we'll find out soon enough whether all those purportedly fraudulent conference foes adequately prepared them.

"

The Sooners’ ride has been a great resurrection story for one of the sport’s most storied programs, but ultimately the competition will catch up. Clemson is No. 1 and unbeaten with wins over three of the CFP Top 10 for a reason. 

Master Meets Understudy

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Michigan State has flourished the last nine seasons under Mark Dantonio, but the venerable head coach has long admitted he wouldn’t have enjoyed such success without the guidance from his Cotton Bowl counterpart: Alabama head coach Nick Saban.

Dantonio was on Saban’s staff as MSU’s defensive backs coach during Saban’s stint from 1995-1999 with the Spartans, his first head-coaching job with a current Power Five program.

Saban, however, remains equally appreciative of what Dantonio’s contributions during their time together, per Alex Byington of the Decatur Daily:

"

When you kind of know these people and you develop relationships with them, you never forget them. I thought we were fortunate to be able to hire him, and he did a fantastic job for us in the five years that we were there.

I always thought he'd do great if he ever got an opportunity to be a head coach. He's certainly done a lot better job at Michigan State than I ever could do. So he's done really well. I'm proud of him.

"

This isn’t the first time the two have tangoed. Michigan State and Alabama met in the Capital One Bowl following the 2010 season—the Spartans as conference champions for the first time in 20 years, with the Crimson Tide suffering a national-title hangover by their standards after a 9-3 season a year removed from an undefeated season.

Alabama spanked Michigan State 49-7, one of the many wins in Saban’s streak against his his former staff members, which remains intact today, per the SEC Network:

Vegas thinks this installment will feature another convincing Alabama win—the Tide are 9.5-point favorites, per Odds Shark—but that seems like an incredibly generous figure given Michigan State’s grit this year. The Spartans have won seven of their last eight Top-10 matchups under Dantonio, per Mike Hall of the Big Ten Network, and manifested three gutsy, last-second wins over Big Ten foes Michigan, Ohio State and Iowa to win the conference crown.

But as resilient as the Spartans have been—they’ll finally meet their match against Almighty Alabama. 

The Spartans haven’t been on this stage, as the Cotton Bowl will arguably be the biggest game in program history, while Alabama remains relevant this late nearly every season. 

Michigan State will compete for titles as long as Dantonio is in East Lansing, but some argue you have to lose one to win one, and this may very well be such a case.