It will be SEC versus Big 10 in Cotton Bowl … One of next week’s CFP semi-finals is now set as Ohio State will face Texas in the Cotton Bowl on Friday the 10th. However, they got their in very different ways. The Buckeyes were expected to be a dogfight with top-rated Oregon in this afternoon’s Rose Bowl in Pasadena, but the game was never really close as Ohio State led 34-0 before the Ducks got on the board late in the first half enroute to a 41-21 win. In contrast, Texas was expected to blowout Arizona State in the Peach Bowl earlier this afternoon in Atlanta, but the Longhorns barely hung in a thriller that had a dizzying number of twists and turns and didn’t end until Texas S Andrew Mukuba intercepted a pass to preserve a 39-31 win double overtime. In fact, the heavily favored Longhorns were very fortunate as they were outplayed for long stretches by the gutsy Arizona State team in general and guysy ASU RB Cam Skattebo in particular. Indeed, despite the loss the legend of Skattebo continued to grow as he rang up over 250 yards of total offence including 132 yards and 3 TDs on the ground while he also threw a TD pass just for good measure. It is also possible that the other national semi-final could be SEC versus Big 10 as Penn State earned a berth in the Orange Bowl on January 9th in Miami where they will play the winner of tomorrow afternoon’s delayed Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Notre Dame which kicks off at 4 PM ET.
