(RNN) – It would seem you can’t have the College Football Playoff without Alabama.

The Crimson Tide earned the No. 4 ranking, and are the only team to have qualified for the playoff in all four years of its existence.

It’s also the first time two teams from the same conference have qualified with Georgia ranked No. 3, and the first time the Big 10 will not be represented.

They join No. 1 Clemson and No. 2 Oklahoma.

The other three teams were obvious, but the fourth hinged on just how valuable a conference championship is to the selection committee. It mattered very little.

“The selection committee just favored Alabama’s whole body of work over Ohio State,” Kirby Hocutt, College Football Playoff Selection Committee chair, said. “The committee believed Alabama was the better football team.”

Clemson and Alabama will meet in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 at 8:45 p.m. Eastern while Oklahoma and Georgia will play in the Rose Bowl at 5 p.m. Eastern.

The Clemson-Alabama matchup is the third time the teams have met in the postseason in the last three years. Alabama won the national championship two years ago with a win over the Tigers, and Clemson took the championship last season with a win over the Tide.

After making the playoff without a conference championship last season, it was Ohio State that was passed over for a bid in favor of a non-champion.

Ohio State’s loss to Iowa featured most prominently in the discussion surrounding the No. 4 position. The Buckeyes fell by 31 points to the Hawkeyes, who are unranked and finished the year 7-5. Ohio State also lost to Oklahoma.

Alabama’s only loss came in its final game of the season against Auburn after being ranked No. 1.

The Tide’s chances were held back by a schedule that isn’t as impressive as it was at the beginning of the year. Alabama opened with a win over Florida State, at the time ranked No. 3 and considered a playoff favorite. But quarterback Deondre Francois suffered a season-ending injury in that game and the Seminoles finished the season 6-6, depriving the Crimson Tide of a signature win.

Whichever way the committee had gone, there was precedent, both involving Ohio State.

The Buckeyes entered the inaugural playoff in 2014 after winning the Big 10 championship in favor of two co-champions from the Big 12, which did not have a conference championship game at the time. Last year, the Buckeyes made the playoff despite not having won the conference championship.

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