Is the 2015 College Football Playoff Lineup Better Than 2014?
In just two weeks, the College Football Playoff will be back and better than ever.
Granted, it'll only be the second edition of the four-team tournament to crown college football's national champion. The 2015 playoff would only have to be better than a grand total of—one.
That's not to say the 2014 College Football Playoff didn't set the bar high for this year's field of the Clemson Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, Michigan State Spartans and Oklahoma Sooners.
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In its maiden voyage, the playoff gave fans a Rose Bowl showdown between the then-defending national champion Florida State Seminoles and an Oregon Ducks team that was led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Marcus Mariota.
On the other side of the bracket, Alabama and the Ohio State Buckeyes squared off to add another chapter in the Nick Saban vs. Urban Meyer coaching rivalry and the endless debate among fans as to who is the best in the sport.
This year's playoff lineup has many similarities to last year's on the surface.
All four teams are Power Five conference champions. There's only one unbeaten team. Two of the season's three Heisman finalists are in the field.
The lone program that repeated as a playoff semifinalist, Alabama, even has a conference loss to the exact same team it fell to last season.
But when it comes to on-field action and off-field storylines, the College Football Playoff appears to have a better slate of matchups this year than it had last year.
Perhaps the biggest advantage of this year's playoff is that there isn't much room for debating the merits of the four teams that made the cut.
The one Power Five conference that got left out this year, the Pac-12, had a two-loss conference champion. The Stanford Cardinal—as well as non-conference champion Ohio State, which lost to Michigan State—could have slid into the final four with some chaos on the last Saturday of the regular season, but that didn't happen.
This year's playoff drama died when the clock hit all zeroes in Clemson's ACC Championship Game victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels.
"These were really the only four options for the College Football Playoff," Bleacher Report's Barrett Sallee said on Selection Sunday. "Overall, this was the right situation. These were the right four teams. The College Football Playoff did its job in 2015."
At this time last year, debates were still raging over who should've gotten in between Ohio State, the Baylor Bears and the TCU Horned Frogs. The Buckeyes proved they belonged and then some by winning it all, but that didn't stop the saltiness from the Lone Star State to continue well into the offseason.
This year, there shouldn't be any frustration toward the playoff committee on which teams finished in the top four. These are the clear-cut national title contenders in 2015.
And not only are these the right four teams—they are also a fairly balanced bunch.
There isn't an overwhelming favorite in this year's race. One might assume it would be undefeated and No. 1 seed Clemson, but the Tigers are 3.5-point underdogs to No. 4 Oklahoma in the first of the semifinal matchups, according to Odds Shark.
The betting favorite to win it all, Alabama, isn't too far ahead of Oklahoma.
Each team can make a case on paper as to why it could take home the national championship, and that makes for a pair of incredible semifinal matchups, as Bleacher Report's Ben Kercheval tweeted when the field was set:
The Orange Bowl showdown between Clemson and Oklahoma has almost everything one would want in a game with national title implications.
The two best quarterbacks in college football this season—according to the final Heisman vote, at least—will collide in this one. Clemson's Deshaun Watson and Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield have led their respective high-octane spread offenses to great success in 2015 and should have a fantastic duel in Miami.
However, it won't be a cakewalk this year for Watson, Mayfield and their strong supporting casts on offense, as both teams have star-studded defenses.
Clemson defensive end Shaq Lawson led the nation in tackles for loss this season, and back-seven stars such as cornerback Mackensie Alexander and linebacker Ben Boulware have turned in consistent performances all year long.
Oklahoma has its own pass-rushing force in linebacker Eric Striker and defensive end Charles Tapper, and the cornerback duo of Zack Sanchez and Jordan Thomas might be the best in college football this season.
There's also plenty of history between the two schools. Clemson waxed Oklahoma, 40-6, in the Russell Athletic Bowl last season without Watson, and the Sooners responded this year by getting revenge on every team that beat them in 2014. Clemson is the last team on that list.
"They are No. 1, have been a long time," Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops said, per Joshua Friemel of the Dallas Morning News. "They have, I think, the longest winning streak at 16. They beat us bad just a year ago. We have a chance to if you win to move on to a national championship ... You find motivation in all of it."
The architect of Clemson's ferocious defense, coordinator Brent Venables, was an assistant under Stoops from 1999 to 2011. Venables joined Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney's staff ahead of the 2012 season after Stoops hired his brother Mike to call the final shots on the defensive side of the ball.
According to Jenni Carlson of the Oklahoman, Venables has nothing but positive things to say about Stoops ahead of this year's meeting. But that won't stop this storyline from being a massive one before, during and even after the game.
The other semifinal matchup will feature a head coach facing his former assistant again, but the Cotton Bowl Classic between Alabama and Michigan State is different.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban was the head coach at Michigan State from 1995 to 1999, and current Michigan State head man Mark Dantonio was his defensive backs coach.
"I always thought [Dantonio would] do great if he ever got an opportunity to be a head coach," Saban said at a playoff press conference last week. "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."
Dantonio will look to pull off the upset over his mentor with a team that mirrors the style Saban has employed during his championship-winning tenure at Alabama.
Both teams utilize power-minded offenses built on ball control and dominating their opponents in the trenches. It's hard to imagine a more physical matchup between powerhouses than this one between the Crimson Tide and the Spartans.
There's a bit of a rematch stake in this one, too, as Alabama faced Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl during the 2010 season. The Crimson Tide hammered the Spartans, 49-7.
"I remember watching it in high school, and I was like 'wow,'" Michigan State offensive lineman Donavon Clark said, per Mike Griffith of MLive.com. "But that was a different team, a different offense and a different defense than we have now."
Alabama has more talent across the board than Michigan State, from Heisman-winning running back Derrick Henry to a loaded defensive front that features defensive linemen Jonathan Allen and A'Shawn Robinson and linebacker Reggie Ragland.
However, it's hard not to be impressed with the caliber of teams Michigan State has beaten away from home this year—the Michigan Wolverines, Ohio State and the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Connor Cook is one of the most experienced quarterbacks in the entire country, and the Spartans have their own defensive stalwarts in defensive end Shilique Calhoun, defensive tackle Malik McDowell and linebacker Riley Bullough.
Since the two semifinals both feature opponents with similar styles, that means the national championship game is guaranteed to be a fun chess match between differing philosophies.
On top of that, the title game could also feature some more great storylines, including Saban facing Stoops again, Swinney taking on his alma mater or the possibility of a resurgent program taking home its first national championship in decades.
All of that—the history, the styles, the star power—has been gift-wrapped neatly into two playoff semifinals this holiday season.
And this year's playoff isn't better just because it's the shiny new present for football fans.
Think of it as an upgrade to last year's excellent model.
Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.
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