It’s official: college football is one of the most watched sports in America. This year’s rivalry week surpassed 78 million viewers according to sportswatchmedia and is a driving force for university revenue and attention. The college football playoffs mark the culmination of sixteen weeks of intense, non-stop play, with even one small slip up ending a team’s season. However, this year’s selections have brought more controversy than excitement.

Starting this 2024-2025 season, the college football playoffs tripled in size to twelve teams, replacing the traditional four team playoff format where the top four highest ranked teams would play in a single elimination bracket.

Per the CFB playoff committee, the current bracket works like this: the twelve teams chosen will be the five conference champions ranked highest by the committee with the remaining teams being the non conference championship teams ranked highest by the committee, then the four highest ranked teams get a bye into the second round while all other teams are seeded against each other per the teams final rankings, with number eight playing number nine, number five playing number twelve, number six playing number eleven, and lastly number seven playing number ten.

However, an interesting caveat of the new format is that a Group of Five team is guaranteed a playoff spot. The Group of Five consist of the Pac-12, Mountain West, Sun Belt, American, and MAC conferences. These conferences typically have much weaker teams compared to the Power 4 conferences, which house the largest and most lucrative conferences such as the Big 10, Big 12, ACC, and SEC.

Controversy has started to arise as two Group of Five teams have made it into the playoffs, Tulane and James Madison. Tulane made it into the playoffs due to being ranked high enough and being a conference champion, coming in at number 20. However, James Madison made it in due to Virginia losing in the ACC to Duke, an unranked opponent. Thus, Virginia, who would’ve been in with a win in the ACC championship was eliminated from playoff contention. James Madison then squeezed into the playoffs, taking Virgirnia’s spot due to being ranked higher and winning the Sun Belt championship. Critics argue that JMU shouldn’t have made it in ahead of teams such as Notre Dame, Texas, and Vanderbilt who had much harder and more rigorous schedules, all three being ranked within the top 15 whereas James Madison ranked #24.

Sports and American Culture teacher, and college football superfan, Mr. Zawadski weighed in on the topic: “If you have some of these teams (JMU) that are 24pt underdogs, it signals to me that you should not be in the playoffs.”

Despite this, excitement is still extremely high ahead of the playoffs, with tickets for the Orange Bowl quarterfinals match being as high as $3,000 and social media being ablaze with predictions and intrigue ahead of the playoffs.

In talking to the sports reporters of the Pawprint, Greyson Simes-Vandersloot and Jacob Gilbert, as well as teacher Mr. Zawadski, there was a clear front-runner: Ohio State.

Ohio State won the championship last year, they have Jeremiah Smith, one of the best wide receivers in college football, they have Ryan Day who is one of the best coaches in college football, and they have Julian Sayin who almost won the Heisman,” said Greyson Simes Vandersloot.

Ohio State won the championship last year, beating Notre Dame 34-23 and holding the #1 spot in the country for almost the entire season.

In every regular season game Ohio State played, they won by at least 2 possessions, with the exception of week one versus Texas where they won 14-7. Furthermore, they have arguably one of the best receiving cores in college football, with their top two recievers combining for almost 2,000 yards. Their RB1, Bo Jackson, has rushed for over 1,000 yards and averging 6.2 YPC, making for a lethal passing and rushing trio for the Buckeyes. 

However, they were upset by Indiana 13-10 in the B1G championship, leading them to slip to #2 while Indiana took #1. Furthermore, Indiana has the Heisman trophy winner, Fernando Mendoza. Overall, while Morgan staff and students believe Ohio State will win, only one thing is guaranteed in college football: anything can happen.

The first game starts on December 19th, with Oklahoma playing Alabama at 8pm. The remaining first found matches will be played on December 20th. Quarterfinal matches will be played on January 1st. The Semifinals will be played January 8th and 9th and the season will officially conclude with the national championship on January 19th at 7:30pm.