The four-team playoff changed college football.

Michael Penix Jr. passed for 430 yards and two touchdowns as No. 2 Washington beat No. 3 Texas 37-31 in the Sugar Bowl to advance to the College Football Playoff championship game, earning the beleaguered Pac-12 one more game this season.

Welcome to Appitude, a sports commentary show from our very own John Appicello — or as you know him, Appy. We’re talking all about college football playoffs.

The back door to the College Football playoff is unlikely to be open for Ohio State or anybody else this championship weekend.

Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan and TCU held on to the top four spots in the College Football Playoff rankings.

Tennessee, Ohio State, Georgia, and Clemson were the top four teams in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season, four days before the Volunteers and Bulldogs square off on the field.

Desmond Ridder and the breakthrough Cincinnati Bearcats have stalled on the big stage against top-ranked Alabama.

Attending a major sporting event can be overwhelming: You might have to fly or embark on a road trip just to get there, depending on the location of course, and consider your accommodations and where you’ll stay, eat and how you’ll get around.

(AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)ARLINGTON, Texas – A truly untraditional Rose Bowl setting, a very common result for Alabama in the College Football Playoff. 4 Notre Dame in a CFP semifinal Rose Bowl played inside about 1,400 miles from Pasadena, California. “I don't think there’s anything quite like the Rose Bowl, the tradition, the setting, the mountains. 3 Ohio State, which beat Clemson 49-28 in the other CFP semifinal at the Sugar Bowl on Friday night. PERFECT AT COWS HOMEAlabama is 5-0 at AT&T Stadium, with a pair of convincing CFP semifinal wins there.

6 CFP), who won the Cotton Bowl in the same NFL stadium where 11 days earlier they claimed their latest Big 12 title. They led 17-0 in the first seven minutes on way to the most points and yards (684) they have ever had in a bowl game. They averaged 10.52 yards per play overall, the most ever against a Power 5 opponent in a bowl game, according to STATS. Their 0-2 start in Big 12 play effectively knocked them out of playoff contention by mid-October. 1 Alabama in the SEC title game, and had averaged nearly 42 points a game.

The dates of the College Football Playoff games and selection of the semifinal participants will remain unchanged after the CFP management committee discussed possibly pushing back the event. “After a robust discussion, the management committee decided the games will remain on the scheduled dates,” Hancock told AP. The selection committee will set the pairings for the semifinals on Dec. 20, the day after most major college conferences are scheduled to play their championship games. The playoff semifinals are set to be played Jan. 1 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, and Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. The Big Ten and Pac-12 are already canceling conference games because their late starts left no room for make-up dates.