College Football Playoff field set: ASU football receives bye, to play in quarterfinals at Peach Bowl

ASU football was awarded a bye in the College Football Playoff and will play in the Peach Bowl as the No. 4 seed after the committee’s unveiling of the final College Football Playoff rankings on Sunday.

In their first College Football Playoff appearance in program history, the Sun Devils will head to Atlanta and will square off against the winner of the first-round matchup between the No. 5 seeded Texas Longhorns and No. 12 seeded Clemson Tigers to be played in Austin, Texas on Dec. 21.

Following its 45-19 win against Iowa State in the Big 12 championship game and after Clemson topped SMU in the ACC title game on Saturday, ASU moved up from No. 15 in the previous rankings to the No. 4 seed in Sunday’s rankings reveal to earn a bye.

Boise State beat UNLV at home in the Mountain West title game on Friday to remain ahead of Arizona State in the committee’s rankings. The third-seeded Broncos also received a bye and will play in the Fiesta Bowl against the winner of Penn State and SMU.

ASU has only played in the Peach Bowl once in its history and that was back in 1970 when the Sun Devils defeated North Carolina, 48-26 at the stadium formerly known as Grant Field.

All-time, the Sun Devils are 0-1 against Texas and have never played against Clemson. Their lone meeting against Texas came in 2007, a 52-34 loss.

The new 12-team field is composed of the five highest-ranked conference champions as well as the next seven highest-ranked schools (regardless of conference). The top four conference champions received byes into the quarterfinals, while the other eight teams are set to play on the campuses of the higher-ranked teams in their respective first-round games.

When will ASU play in the College Football Playoff Quarterfinal at the Peach Bowl?

This year’s iteration of the game will be played on Jan. 1 at 11 a.m. MST at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

Final College Football Playoff Rankings:

1. Oregon (No. 1 seed)

2. Georgia (No. 2 seed)

3. Texas (No. 5 seed)

4. Penn State (No. 6 seed)

5. Notre Dame (No. 7 seed)

6. Ohio State (No. 8 seed)

7. Tennessee (No. 9 seed)

8. Indiana (No. 10 seed)

9. Boise State (No. 3 seed)

10. SMU (No. 11 seed)

11. Alabama

12. Arizona State (No. 4 seed)

13. Miami

14. Ole Miss

15. South Carolina

16. Clemson (No. 12 seed)

17. BYU

18. Iowa State

19. Missouri

20. Illinois

21. Syracuse

22. Army

23. Colorado

24. UNLV

25. Memphis

College Football Playoff First-round games

Dec. 20-21 

Friday, Dec. 20

No. 10 Indiana at No. 7 Notre Dame (South Bend, Indiana) 6 p.m. MST (ESPN/ABC)

Saturday, Dec. 21

No. 11 SMU at No. 6 Penn State (State College, Pennsylvania) 10 a.m. MST (TNT)

Saturday, Dec. 21

No. 12 Clemson at No. 5 Texas (Austin, Texas) 2 p.m. MST (TNT)

Saturday, Dec. 21

No. 9 Tennessee at No. 8 Ohio State (Columbus, Ohio) 6 p.m. MST (ESPN/ABC)

CFP quarterfinal games

Tuesday, Dec. 31

CFP Quarterfinal at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl
State Farm Stadium (Glendale, Arizona) 5:30 p.m. MST (ESPN)

No. 6 Penn State/No. 11 SMU vs. No. 3 Boise State

Wednesday, Jan. 1

CFP Quarterfinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta, Georgia) 11 a.m. MST (ESPN)

No. 5 Clemson/No. 12 Texas vs. No. 4 Arizona State

CFP Quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential
Rose Bowl (Pasadena, California) 3 p.m. MST (ESPN)

No. 8 Ohio State/No. 9 Tennessee vs. No. 1 Oregon

CFP Quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl
Caesars Superdome (New Orleans, Louisiana) 6:45 p.m. MST (ESPN)

No. 7 Notre Dame/No. 10 Indiana vs. No. 2 Georgia

CFP semifinal games

Thursday, Jan. 9

CFP Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl
Hard Rock Stadium (Miami Gardens, Florida) 5:30 p.m. MST (ESPN)

Friday, Jan. 10

CFP Semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic
AT&T Stadium (Arlington, Texas) 5:30 p.m. MST (ESPN)

CFP National Championship game

Monday, Jan. 20

CFP National Championship Presented by AT&T
Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta, Georgia) 5:30 p.m. MST (ESPN)

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