NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Alabama and newly crowned Big 12 champion Kansas State will meet for the first time at the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Eve.
The Crimson Tide (10-2, No. 5 CFP) are headed to the Sugar Bowl for the 17th time after narrowly missing out on the four-team College Football Playoff because of losses at Tennessee and LSU on the last play of each game.
Kansas State (10-3, No. 9 CFP) did its best to help Alabama's chances of a playoff berth by handing TCU its first loss of the season in overtime of Saturday's Big 12 title game in Dallas.
But that close loss in a title game for TCU was not enough to persuade the College Football Playoff selection committee to drop the Horned Frogs out of the top four in its rankings. TCU wound up as the third seed and Ohio State, whose lone loss came against unbeaten Michigan, is the fourth seed and will meet top-seeded Georgia.