ATLANTA — Alabama locked up another title, with plenty of style points for the playoff committee.

Now, the Crimson Tide can go after the crown it really wants.

Blake Sims threw a pair of touchdown passes, T.J. Yeldon and Derrick Henry each had a couple of touchdown runs, and top-ranked Alabama pulled away in the fourth quarter to win its 24th Southeastern Conference championship with a 42-13 rout of No. 14 Missouri on Saturday.

Amari Cooper did nothing to hurt his Heisman chances with 12 receptions, the most in the game’s 23-year history.

Missouri made it a one-score contest in the third quarter, but Alabama (12-1) put up three touchdowns over the final 15 minutes to lock up its spot in college football’s inaugural playoff. And if the committee was impressed by second-ranked Oregon’s 51-13 rout of Arizona in the Pac-12 title game Friday night, they got another equally dominating performance from the team on top of its latest rankings.

For Coach Nick Saban and the Tide, this one was especially sweet.

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A year ago, Alabama was poised to make a run at its third straight national title when Auburn won the Iron Bowl on the final play — a 109-yard return of a missed field goal.

The sting from that one will never totally go away, but this sure helped. Even though plucky Missouri (10-3) hung around much of the game, the Tide can book a trip to New Orleans for a likely semifinal game in the Sugar Bowl.

Alabama was ranked No. 1 by the playoff committee after winning the brutal SEC West. By knocking off the East champion, the Tide made it three SEC titles in Saban’s dominating eight years as coach, a run that increasingly looks like the second coming of Bear Bryant in a much more competitive era.

Cheered on by a predominantly crimson-clad crowd at the Georgia Dome, Alabama started out like it was going to run Missouri right out of the building. With offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin calling a bunch of short passes and runs to deal with Missouri’s pass rush, the Tide went 68 yards in 10 plays — never even going to third down — to seize a 7-0 lead less than 4 minutes into the game.

Missouri, which reached the title game for the second year in a row despite an ugly loss to Indiana and a 34-0 blowout at home by Georgia, managed to stay in the game thanks to Maty Mauk’s deep passing. He completed throws of 63, 47, 32 and 26 yards, one of them after a Johnny Manziel-like scramble in which he threw back across his body running to his left.

It was not nearly enough against the Crimson Tide juggernaut.

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(4) TCU 55, IOWA STATE 3: Trevone Boykin passed for a career-high 460 yards and caught a touchdown pass as No. 4 TCU earned at least a share of the Big 12 championship and kept its playoff bid alive with a 55-3 victory against lowly Iowa State in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Horned Frogs (11-1, 8-1 Big 12) came into championship weekend ranked third in the College Football Playoff selection committee’s rankings. TCU was the only playoff contender not playing a ranked team this weekend.

There wasn’t much the Frogs could do to help themselves against the Cyclones (2-10, 0-9), but they avoided the type of clunker that could have caused the committee to downgrade them.

Aaron Green scored two touchdowns for TCU and Derrick Kindred returned an interception 44 yards for a score in the third quarter to put the Frogs up 34-3.

Iowa State finished winless in the Big 12 for the first time since 2008, and the first time under sixth-year coach Paul Rhoads.

For TCU the question was not if the team would win, but by how much? The Horned Frogs were 34-point favorites against the worst team in the Big 12. The Cyclones have been crushed by injuries and no team in the league has allowed more yards per play.

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To complete their resume and make sure they stay ahead of Ohio State and Baylor when the final playoff rankings are revealed Sunday, the Frogs needed to exert some serious game control.

Despite losing 61-58 at Baylor in October, the Horned Frogs will be able to put conference champion on their resume no matter what the Bears did later Saturday, 85 miles south of Fort Worth in Waco, against Kansas State.

The Big 12 won’t designate a champion through a tiebreaker. Instead, the conference will let the committee sort it out. The selection protocol states that championships won and head-to-head are supposed to be used as determining factors when choosing between similar teams.

Committee chairman Jeff Long said again on ESPN on Saturday morning that the head-to-head between TCU and Baylor hasn’t “come into play yet.”

The Frogs and Bears play 10 common opponents. The biggest difference is Baylor played at Buffalo, a mediocre Mid-American Conference team, and TCU played Minnesota, a good Big Ten team.

OKLAHOMA STATE 38, (18) OKLAHOMA 35: Tyreek Hill returned a punt 91 yards for a touchdown with 45 seconds remaining to force overtime and Ben Grogan kicked a 21-yard field goal in the extra period to give the Cowboys a 38-35 victory over the Sooners in Norman, Oklahoma.

On the first overtime possession, Oklahoma’s Michael Hunnicutt missed a 44-yard field goal attempt.

Oklahoma State took over and pounded the ball with Desmond Roland to set up the winner.

Mason Rudolph passed for 273 yards and two touchdowns, and Brandon Sheperd caught seven passes for a career-high 156 yards and two touchdowns for the Cowboys (6-6, 4-5 Big 12).


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