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Ranking every College Football Playoff team in history

By Cody Williams

TAMPA, FL - JANUARY 09: Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney holds up the National Championship trophy after the 2017 College Football National Championship Game between the Clemson Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide on January 9, 2017, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL. Clemson defeated Alabama 35-31. (Photo by Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
TAMPA, FL - JANUARY 09: Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney holds up the National Championship trophy after the 2017 College Football National Championship Game between the Clemson Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide on January 9, 2017, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL. Clemson defeated Alabama 35-31. (Photo by Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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As we enter the fourth year of the College Football Playoff, we rank every individual team that has competed in the four-team playoff to this point.

After years of fans calling for it with teams vying for two spots under the BCS system, the College Football Playoff graced the lives of fans in 2015. The four best teams in the country — as determined by a selection committee — duking it out in a mini tournament to crown the National Champion of the sport. Now we’re entering the fourth year of the CFP, and it’s still a rousing success to this point.

For the 2018 College Football Playoff, the four teams competing for a national title will be (in order of seeding) the Clemson Tigers, Oklahoma Sooners, Georgia Bulldogs and Alabama Crimson Tide. Yes, there has been plenty of conversation and controversy about Big Ten Champion Ohio State being left out of the field, but that is the quartet of teams that will take part in the CFP this time around.

Now that the College Football Playoff has some mileage on it though, it’s hard not to look at this field and compare it to those of the past. More pointedly, it’s almost impossible not to simply compare each individual teams to those that we’ve already seen in the CFP before. So why not go all out with that.

Looking back at the 16 individual teams that have earned a spot in the College Football Playoff in its brief history, here is how they stack up against one another.

Note: The year listed beside each team is the year that the College Football Playoff National Championship was played that season. 

16. Michigan State Spartans – 2016

Result: Lost to Alabama in Semifinal (Cotton Bowl), 38-0

There was no questioning the success that Mark D’Antonio’s Michigan State Spartans had throughout the 2015 regular season. Led by Connor Cook, the Spartans were clearly the class of the Big Ten, despite that being somewhat of a shock to the senses for fans expecting to see Buckeyes and Wolverines in such a position. However, when they were put up against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Cotton Bowl, it became clear that we were looking at two vastly different calibers of teams.

Pick a phase of the game and the Spartans looked inept against the Crimson Tide. Cook, who had been phenomenal all season long for Michigan State, could never get settled, throwing two interceptions and managing just 210 yards passing. Even worse, though was the run game for the Spartans, which mustered only 29 yards on 26 carries on the night. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the Crimson Tide offense had their way as Derrick Henry ran amuck and Jake Coker moved the ball at will.

Did Michigan State deserve to be a part of the College Football Playoff? Absolutely. Their regular season body of work suggested that they were one of the four best teams in the country, and they were probably better than the result of their semifinal loss showed. With that being said, there’s also no argument to be made that they are in the same class as any other CFP team to date. Put simply, they are a deserving outlier in the CFP conversation.