An entire season-long journey into a new land, a 12-team playoff, wound its way along a path of wild twists and turns to this moment on a cold December night in Charlotte. A season that began in August came down to the very last play of the non-playoff season. Pushing toward midnight in the final conference championship game to end on Saturday, the Clemson Tigers struck a dramatic blow that served three purposes at once.
Freshman Nolan Hauser’s 56-yard, walk-off field goal in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game put 10–3 Clemson in the playoff with a 34–31 win over the SMU Mustangs. In the process, the Tigers stole a playoff bid from someone else. If there is any justice or sense in the world, the team that is out is the zombie monster that just kept coming back from the dead, the 9–3 Alabama Crimson Tide. And it verified 11–2 SMU as a playoff team.
