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Published Dec 7, 2014
Its Florida State vs. Oregon in College Football Playoffs
Ben Jones
Warchant.com Staff Writer
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Florida State's road to a second straight national championship will include a return trip to the place where it won last year's title. The Seminoles (13-0, 8-0 ACC) will face Oregon (12-1, 8-1 Pac-12) in Pasadena on Jan. 1 in a semifinal in the inaugural College Football Playoff.
FSU made the playoff as the No. 3 seed and the only undefeated team in the country after winning the ACC championship on Saturday 37-35 over Georgia Tech. Oregon, the No. 2 seed, won the Pac-12 championship on Friday night. The Ducks avenged a regular season defeat to Arizona in a 51-13 win.
Alabama (12-1, 7-1 SEC), the No. 1 seed, will play No. 4 seed Ohio State (12-1, 7-1 Big 10) in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1. The winners of the two semifinal games will play at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Jan. 12 for the national championship.
"This team is an elite team," head coach Jimbo Fisher said of the Seminoles on Saturday night. "It's 13-0. Thirteen wins, no losses, no matter what happens to us. And its resiliency to be unbroken is amazing to me, because it takes everybody's best shot and looks you in the eye and just keeps playing."
The matchup will pit 2013 Heisman trophy winner Jameis Winston against Marcus Mariota, the Heisman favorite for this year. Winston has completed 276 of 422 passes for 3,559 yards with 24 touchdowns and 17 interceptions this year. Mariota has completed 254 of 372 passes this season (68.3 percent) for 3,783 yards with 38 touchdowns and two interceptions.
The game will be the first meeting between the two schools.
Florida State's Jimbo Fisher and Oregon's Mark Helfrich are two of the winningest coaches in college football among coaches with two years of experience. Fisher is 58-10 (.853) while Helfrich is 23-3 (.885).
The Ducks are the fourth-winningest program in college football in the last three years, while FSU is the winningest. FSU has gone 39-2 since the start of the 2012 season and has won 29 straight games, while Oregon is 35-4 in that stretch. Alabama has gone 36-4 in that span and Ohio State is 36-3.
Oregon's offense remains one of the most potent in college football. The Ducks average 545.5 yards per game and 46.3 points per game, ranking third nationally in both categories. They've only been held to fewer than 42 points in one game this season.
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