Michigan State moves up to No. 11 in College Football Playoff rankings, positioned to secure New Year’s bowl

EAST LANSING — Michigan State moved up from No. 12 to No. 11 in the College Football Playoff selection committee rankings released Tuesday night on ESPN2.

Alabama is No. 1 in the CFP rankings, followed by Oregon, Florida State and Mississippi State. The top four teams as of Dec. 7 will play in the semifinal playoff games, which this year are the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl.

The Spartans are striving to play in one of the other non-playoff bowls in the “New Year’s Six,” which is made up of bowls in the College Football Playoff rotation — the Cotton (Dallas), the Orange (Miami), the Peach (Atlanta) and the Fiesta (Glendale, Ariz.) in addition to this year’s semifinals.

The Orange Bowl has contractual tie-ins to take the highest ranked ACC team that’s not in the playoff semifinals and pair it against the highest ranked, non-playoff team from a pool including Notre Dame or non-league champs from the Big Ten or the SEC.

The remaining three bowls — Cotton, Peach and Fiesta — will feature at-large selections as determined by the CFP selection committee which must also include the highest ranked non-Power 5 conference champion. - Read more at MLive.com