A college football season of unprecedented tumult, in danger of never starting and then wheezing through the final weeks, rife with canceled games and player opt-outs and declined bowl bids, one that began with Notre Dame in a conference and ends with the Rose Bowl in Texas, has, in the final analysis, delivered a completely predictable playoff.
Of course.
Nothing, not even a life-altering pandemic, could keep Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State from their appointed rounds. Notre Dame gets to tag along as the College Football Playoff fourth, expected to serve as Crimson Tide cannon fodder and little more.