The results are in and the first College Football Playoff is set.

As expected, conference championships along with strength of schedule overshadowed other primary points of emphasis for the selection committee and helped Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes move into the semifinal round on the season’s final day.

Top seed Alabama (12-1) will battle No. 4 Ohio State (12-1) in a prime-time Sugar Bowl showdown on Jan. 1 while second-seeded Oregon (12-1) takes on defending national champ Florida State (13-0) a few hours earlier in the Rose Bowl.

Winners will meet on Jan. 12 for the national championship.

Co-Big XII champs TCU and Baylor were thought to be the two teams fighting for the final spot heading into championship weekend, but the lack of a league championship game damaged both teams’ chances according to committee chairman Jeff Long.

“We really don’t deal in hypotheticals, but I’ll go back and say Ohio State’s performance in a  13th game against a highly-ranked team allowed them to move into the fourth spot,” Long said.

Final Top 6 in the CFP rankings

  1. Alabama
  2. Oregon
  3. Florida State
  4. Ohio State
  5. Baylor
  6. TCU

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Ohio State obliterated Wisconsin, 59-0, Saturday night despite playing the Badgers with third-string quarterback Cardale Jones. The Buckeyes have won 11 straight games since falling to Virginia Tech at home on Sept. 6.

“With the (Big Ten) championship game, Ohio State demonstrated they were a total team,” Long said. “They overcame replacing two quarterbacks. That’s a tremendous statement about the quality of their team. It was decisive to move into the fourth spot. Once we saw the body of work, it was really about Ohio State’s movement up.”

Reaction from ESPN’s panel of analysts

David Pollack: “TCU beat Kansas State. Baylor beat Kansas State. Now the resume’s complete for the Bears. The committee took Ohio State’s championship into account and set the final four.”

Kirk Herbstreit: “The committee waited until all the games were played and all the champions were crowned. This is not the AP poll. This is not hold serve, week to week. Head to head came into play eventually and Baylor went ahead of TCU in the committee’s eyes.”

Joey Galloway: “(Trevone) Boykin had his best game. TCU’s defense scored again. They did nothing to warrant a three-spot drop. Enough members voted against TCU 3 to 6, but I don’t get that argument. When I watched the film, nothing changed. TCU’s better than the teams ahead of them.”