By virtue of their victories, Alabama and Clemson advanced to the national championship game, held on January 7 in Santa Clara, California.
The 2018–19 CFP selection committee was chaired by Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens.
Its other members were former Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer, former The Arizona Republic reporter Paola Boivin, former Southern Miss head coach Jeff Bower, Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione, former Central Michigan athletic director Herb Deromedi, former head coach Ken Hatfield, Robert Morris University president Christopher B. Howard, former head coach Bobby Johnson, former NFL player Ronnie Lott, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith, Georgia Tech athletic director Todd Stansbury, and Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin.
[6] The final week of the regular season featured several games with implications for the penultimate rankings release; No.
8 UCF beat Memphis to win the American Athletic Conference (AAC) Championship.
Alabama, Clemson, and Notre Dame remained in the top three spots, and Oklahoma rose to No.
3 Notre Dame in the teams' fourth meeting; it was their first matchup since 2015, and Clemson entered leading the series 2–1.
[22] The teams traded punts to begin the game, and the Clemson defense forced a fumble on the first play of Notre Dame's second drive which resulted in a field goal for the Tigers.
Notre Dame answered with a 10-play drive which concluded with a 28-yard Justin Yoon field goal to tie the game.
That play was the final scoring play of the game for the Fighting Irish, as the Tigers finished the game with 27 unanswered points following two touchdown passes from Trevor Lawrence to Justyn Ross, one pass to Tee Higgins, and a Travis Etienne rush.
Following their first quarter field goal, Notre Dame recorded seven punts, an interception, and turnover on downs, and a drive that ended at halftime.
The game concluded with a 30–3 Clemson victory, sending them to the national championship for the third time in four seasons.
[23][24] at Hard Rock Stadium • Miami Gardens, Florida Alabama and Oklahoma were paired in the Orange Bowl semifinal, marking the programs' sixth all-time meeting.
Oklahoma entered the game leading the series 3–1–1 with a 1–1–1 split in three prior postseason matchups.
[25] Receiving the ball first, Alabama opened the game with touchdowns on each of their first four drives while Oklahoma recorded two punts and a turnover on downs to make the score 28–0 in favor of the Crimson Tide by the fourth play of the second quarter.
The Sooners broke the scoring streak with a touchdown on their next drive, a 32-yard pass from Kyler Murray to CeeDee Lamb.
[27] Clemson jumped out to an early lead with an A. J. Terrell interception returned for a touchdown on Alabama's third play.
The teams traded touchdowns, though an Alabama missed extra point kept a 1-point lead for the Tigers.
Alabama took their first lead following a Joseph Bulovas field goal early in the second quarter but failed to score for the remainder of the game.
Both games' audiences peaked in the first half and declined as Alabama and Clemson each grew and maintained their respective leads.