College Football Playoff 2015: Selection Committee Rankings for Final Week

Bring on the College Football Playoff.

With the conference title games now behind us, the selection committee released its final rankings Sunday, setting up this year's four-team playoff to determine the national champion.

You can see those rankings below:  

The Top Four is no surprise.

Coming into the weekend, it was pretty clear how the playoff would likely shake out. Clemson and Alabama would be in with wins, the winner of the Big Ten title game would get a berth and Oklahoma had already earned its spot. 

Clemson upheld its end of the bargain, though somewhat controversially. The Tigers knocked off North Carolina 45-37, though the Tar Heels recovered an onside kick with just over a minute remaining, only to be ruled offside on the play, negating the recovery.

Replays showed that the officials got the call wrong, however. It was a brutal outcome for North Carolina, as Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk noted:

Clemson certainly played well enough to win, though, closing its season as the only undefeated team in the nation. The Tigers offered an impressive resume, with wins over Notre Dame, Florida State and North Carolina, and they were a justifiable pick as the top team in the nation.

The order of the next three teams was more debatable, though it was always going to be Alabama, Michigan State and Oklahoma in some order. The Crimson Tide certainly impressed down the stretch, winning 10 straight games and capping off another SEC title with a 29-15 win over Florida.

"I'm very proud of this team," head coach Nick Saban, said, per ESPN. "They wanted to do something special. And probably more than any other time I've ever coached, I wanted to see these guys succeed."

It wasn't always clear that the Crimson Tide were capable of doing something special, however. A 43-37 loss to Ole Miss in mid-September seemed to put Alabama's title hopes in jeopardy. But as always, the Crimson Tide responded, navigating another treacherous schedule and earning another SEC crown. 

Few teams seemed to traverse a treacherous schedule with more close calls than Michigan State, which needed another late score—this time an L.J. Scott touchdown run with 27 seconds remaining—to beat Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Came, 16-13.

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

The Spartans beat Michigan, Ohio State and Iowa this season by a combined total of 10 points. The team's never-say-die attitude and composure late in games should serve it well in the playoff, though of course the team and its fans would probably prefer the outcomes to be a bit more comfortable. 

A few teams moved in the wrong direction Saturday, meanwhile.

Iowa's loss dropped it out of the Top Four, a tough finish to an excellent season for the Hawkeyes, while Baylor's unexpected loss to Texas saw the Bears plummet. USC lost to Stanford in the Pac-12 title game, while Temple's loss to Houston in the American Athletic title game saw the Owls fall slightly in the rankings.

With some truly intriguing matchups to look forward to from bowl season—and of course the playoff matchups, in a year with no true front-runner among the four teams—the next month of college football should be spectacular.