Gary Barta explains rationale for Michigan State-Pittsburgh matchup in Peach Bowl
For the 2021 Peach Bowl, we’ll get a pair of first-timers.
In the 54-year history of the Atlanta-based bowl game, neither Pittsburgh nor Michigan State have appeared in the game. They’ll meet on Dec. 30 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to remedy that. The Panthers, ranked 12th in the final College Football Playoff rankings, will represent the ACC. They won the league title Saturday night with a 45-21 win over Wake Forest. The Spartans, ranked 10th, will represent the Big Ten.
This will be the first time the Peach Bowl has featured an ACC-Big Ten clash since 1988, and only the second time a Big Ten team has played in the game since 1990.
After the 4 playoff teams were assigned to semifinal games and the Rose and Sugar Bowls announced their teams based on conference tie-ins, the CFP selection committee had 4 remaining teams, 3 of them at-larges, to place between the Fiesta and Peach Bowls: No. 5 Notre Dame, No. 9 Oklahoma State, No. 10 Michigan State, and No. 12 Pittsburgh.
Gary Barta, the CFP’s chair, explained the rationale for who ended up where on Sunday, per The Detroit Free Press’s Chris Solari.
Barta says "the most fair way to go forward was to use our rankings as the determination" for Fiesta and Peach bowl pairings.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) December 5, 2021
The rationale after pairing the opponents, Barta said, was to sending the western-most teams (Notre Dame and Oklahoma State) to Phoenix and placing the two teams "a little bit further east" (MSU-Pittsburgh) to Atlanta.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) December 5, 2021
This will be the 8th meeting all-time between Pitt and Michigan State, and the first since 2007. The Spartans lead the all-time series 6-0-1. The game is scheduled for kickoff at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN