DALLAS - Alabama has arrived in North Texas for the College Football Playoff after some severe weather at home.

Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban says there were some difficult circumstances with the weather. But the coach says everyone who was supposed to be on the team plane Saturday made it, and there were no issues with the flight.

The second-ranked Tide play No. 3 Michigan State on New Year's Eve in the Cotton Bowl, one of the two semifinal games.

Michigan State arrived Friday night.

Saban says about 90 percent of the Tide players were on the flight, and the rest were meeting at the team hotel after traveling on their own from Texas and parts further West.

A tornado touched down briefly Christmas Day in Birmingham, Alabama, about an hour from the Tuscaloosa campus.