On Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, Ohio State and Notre Dame made history. The first 12-team playoff in NCAA football history would come to an end, with Ohio State beating Notre Dame 34-23. The first 12-team playoff brought lots of controversy. I felt that the 12-team playoff was amazing. The only bad games we saw were the first round games and the Ohio State vs. Oregon game. Other than that, the decision to move to a 12-team college football playoff was a good decision
The college football playoff games averaged 16.9 million viewers in the quarterfinals, compared to only 10.6 million viewers for the first-round games. College football also made a change to playoff games this year. When the playoffs involved only four teams, first-round games would be a neutral site. However, for the first round in 2025, the higher ranked seed would play at their home stadium. This was definitely a big reason why college football was able to pull in more viewers.
A few years ago, when there were only four teams that made the playoffs, you could easily predict who would win it all. I mean, just look at Notre Dame. Back in September, there were rumors of their season being over due to a home loss against unranked Northern Illinois University (NIU) 16-14. However, four months later they are in the National Championship.
According to ESPN analysts, Going into the playoffs, most people had Texas winning the National Championship with 27.2%. However, once Ohio State beat Oregon, everything changed. More people realized the experience and determination in Ohio State and that nobody could get in their way.
The most exciting part of the 12-team playoff was more football. Last year, the National Championship was on Jan. 8, while this year, the game was played a week and a half later on Jan. 20. It was also very hard to predict what was going to happen. With games like Ohio State vs. Tennessee and Notre Dame vs. Indiana in the first round, it was definitely unexpected when they were blowouts.
There will always be controversy about who made and didn’t make the playoffs in college football, such as Alabama and Miami this season. Dating back to 2014 when college football made the playoffs a four-team tournament, there were always people upset about the teams in the playoffs. . Take the Alabama Crimson Tide last season. Alabama went 12-1 in the regular season, losing to Texas in week 2. They got the four seed in the playoffs last year over undefeated Florida State. The reason the college football committee didn’t put Florida State in is because their starting quarterback (Jordan Travis) was injured. Alabama ended up playing in the semifinal against Michigan, losing 27-20 in overtime. As for Florida State, they played in the Orange Bowl, benched all their starters and lost 63-3, and everyone blamed the committee.
Fans aren’t the only ones who have gotten angry at the committee. Back in 2017, the University of Central Florida (UCF) Knights declared themselves champions after going undefeated. The year prior, they finished the season 6-7. The next year, UCF went 12-0 in the regular season and earned the American Athletic Conference (AAC) title. However, since the playoffs seem to be based on popularity, UCF didn’t make the final four teams. The Knights played Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. After beating Auburn 34-27, they declared themselves National Champions with the perfect 13-0 season.
Even though controversy will always be a part of the College Football Playoff, the 12- team playoff was a good idea. The seeding should be a little different, but this is a good thing for college football. College football publicity is on the rise and for good reason.
