Now that the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff is down to four teams remaining — the size of the field the previous 10 seasons — things really don’t look that much different.
The final quartet includes two teams from the Big Ten, one from the Southeastern Conference and third-time semifinalist Notre Dame (13-1). It is the third time in four seasons that the sport’s two richest leagues fill three of the final four spots, despite all the changes to get to this point and with neither having its regular-season champion still playing.
Ohio State (12-2) and Penn State (13-2) give the Big Ten two semifinalists for the second time in three years. Even without former CFP champions Alabama and Georgia, the SEC extended its streak as the only conference with a final four team every season when league newcomer Texas (13-2) made it for the second year in a row
“I really believe this is a premier football conference in America because of the week-in, week-out tasks that it requires physically and mentally,” Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian said. “To be back in the final four wearing that SEC patch on our jersey, we’re going to do our best to represent it because this is a heck of a conference.”
Texas was the Big 12 champion when it made its first CFP appearance last season before moving with Oklahoma to create a 16-team SEC. The Longhorns (13-2), whose only losses were to Georgia in the regular season and the SEC title game, are the only one of last season’s four playoff teams to even make it into this 12-team field.
Penn State is a first-time semifinalist, and in this format has already had to win two postseason games. Its 16th game this season, two more than ever before, will come in the Orange Bowl semifinal against Notre Dame on Thursday night.
The Buckeyes’ last national title came during the initial four-team playoff 10 years ago with a win over Oregon at AT&T Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, where the Buckeyes play Texas in the Cotton Bowl semifinal on Friday night. This is their fifth semifinal. Only Alabama (eight) and Clemson (six) have made it more times.
More than half the spots
While there are more playoff spots after tripling the size of the field and with guaranteed berths for five conference champions, the Big Ten and SEC took seven of the 12 slots (four Big Ten and three SEC).
Those leagues combining to take more than half the playoff spots has also been the case historically. During 10 seasons with the four-team format, there were 40 playoff slots. The SEC filled 12 of them (30%) and the Big Ten had nine (22.5%). The ACC was next with seven (17.5%), even without a semifinalist since 2020.
“The SEC won a lot of these for a while, but this year, here, we’ve got two strong traditional programs from up north,” said Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, whose program plays an ACC-heavy schedule each season while remaining an independent. “Michigan broke through last year, and Washington was in there, too. I don’t know if it’s a trend, but since it’s us, I hope it is.”
Big Ten vs. Big Ten for the title?
The Big Ten still has the opportunity to do what only the SEC has done in the playoff era.
Only the SEC, with Alabama involved each time, has had two of its teams play for the national title since the inception of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998 before that evolved into the CFP in 2014.
Alabama and Georgia met in CFP title games at the end of the 2017 and 2021 seasons, splitting those games. The Crimson Tide were 2011 champs after beating LSU in that BCS championship game
If Penn State and Ohio State both advance to the CFP title game Jan. 20 in Atlanta, it would would set up a rematch of the Nittany Lion’s only regular-season loss, 20-13 at home on Nov. 2.
NFL-length schedule
Texas and Penn State could potentially play 17 games, the length of an NFL regular season. Both have their 16th game this week.
The Longhorns lost to Georgia in the SEC championship game, then beat Clemson in home in a first-round game and Big 12 champion Arizona State in the Peach Bowl.
Penn State lost the Big Ten title game to top-ranked and then-undefeated Oregon, which then had a first-round bye before losing to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. The Nittany Lions beat SMU and Boise State to advance.
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