College Football Playoff: Alabama vs. Ohio St., Oregon vs. Florida St.

Top-ranked Alabama will play No. 4 Ohio State and No. 2 Oregon will go up against No. 3 Florida State in the inaugural College Football Playoff semifinals.

Oregon and Florida State will play in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 at 2 p.m. PST, and Alabama and Ohio State will play in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 1 at 5:30 p.m. The winners will meet in the national championship game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Jan. 12.

Alabama (11-1), which claimed its second Southeastern Conference title in three years with a victory over Missouri on Saturday, is looking to win a third national title in four years. Big Ten champion Ohio State (12-1) rose from No. 5 in the rankings after a 59-0 win over Wisconsin on Saturday.

Oregon (11-1) won the Pac-12 title with a blowout win over Arizona on Friday. Defending national champion Florida State (12-0) enters the playoff after narrowly defeating Georgia Tech in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game.

Big 12 co-champions Baylor (11-1) and Texas Christian (10-1) finished No. 5 and No. 6, respectively, in the final rankings. TCU fell out of playoff contention from the No. 3 spot in last week’s rankings despite a blowout win over Iowa State on Saturday.

College Football Playoff committee chairman Jeff Long said it was clear-cut decision to rank Alabama, Oregon and Florida State in the top three.

Long said there was debate among the 12-member committee over whether Ohio State, Baylor or TCU should be ranked No. 4. In the end, Ohio State’s nine consecutive wins over bowl-eligible teams proved to be the difference in their decision, Long said.

Associated Press contributed to this report.