College football Week 15 highlights - top plays, games, takeaways - ESPN

Dabo Swinney is, in many ways, the last man still standing strong against the unrelenting headwinds of the modern game — ignoring the transfer portal, lamenting roster limits and, on Saturday, holding fast to Clemson's oldest tradition of tripping over its own shoelaces when blessed with an otherwise advantageous position. It feels like there should be some word for that — a verb of some sort tying Clemson specifically to that type of collapse.

And yet, with just nine seconds left in the game, Clemson did something different and exhilarating, dramatic and miraculous. It won. And in doing so, it injected a small sliver of drama into championship week, a blow to the status quo that could bleed into Sunday's final CFP rankings reveal, when the first 12-team playoff field is unveiled and some team — perhaps Swinney's alma mater, Alabama, or perhaps Swinney's latest conquest, SMU — will be left out.

Clemson's 34-31 win over No. 8 SMU in the ACC championship game threw a wrench into what could've been a simple, relatively controversy-free final vote for this committee after the rest of championship weekend largely made things simple.

Boise State solidified the Group of 5's slot in the playoff with a 21-7 win over UNLV.

Arizona State secured its bid by winning the Big 12 title, 45-19 over Iowa State.

Oregon proved it is the No. 1 team in the country, the last undefeated, upending Penn State 45-37 for a Big Ten championship in its first season in the conference.

And Georgia, despite an early deficit, a languid offense and an injured starting quarterback, found a way to escape Texas 22-19 in overtime. Carson Beck left the game with an upper-body injury, turning the offense over to Gunner Stockton, who led the Dawgs to a late lead