College Football Jumps into Postseason 

By: Olivia Wallace 

     With this College Football season coming to an end, a new format has taken over crowning the 2024 National Champion. After ten years of a four-team playoff format, a few university presidents decided to change the format to 12-team playoffs.  

     The Squire interviewed college football fan and athletic director, Mr. Black, and asked him his opinion on the new 12-team format. He commented, “I absolutely LOVE the 12-team play-off. It gives more teams a chance to win it!” 

     The 12-team playoff gives the four highest ranked conference champions a bye in the first round. A fifth conference champion is included in the other eight teams who have to play in the first round. The other seven teams are selected and ranked by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. In the first round, the higher seed hosts the game in their home stadium. The quarterfinals are played in four of the six New Years Six bowl games. The semifinals are held at the other two New Years Six bowl games. This year, the National Championship will be held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. 

     The first game of the playoffs will take place on Friday, December 20 at eight o’clock in which the #10 Indiana Hoosiers will travel 200 miles north to take on the #7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Notre Dame Stadium. The Hoosiers are a one-loss team from the Big Ten with their only loss coming against previously #2 Ohio State. Notre Dame has dominated all of their games as an independent school with only one exception in a rough home loss to a Group of 5 team in Northern Illinois. The winner of this game will play in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans against the Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia is the SEC (Southeastern Conference) Champion and the overall two seed of the playoffs. They have major wins over Tennessee and Texas twice but have also lost to Alabama and Ole Miss, who both failed to make the playoffs. 

     The next game played will be Saturday, December 21 at noon with the #11 SMU Mustangs (Southern Methodist University) from Dallas, Texas facing off against the #6 Penn State Nittany Lions at Beaver Stadium. SMU lost the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) in the last moments to Clemson giving the Mustangs their second loss of the season. Their only other loss was to BYU (Brigham Young University) who finished the season in the AP (Associated Press) top 25. The Nittany Lions have also lost two games, with one being against the number one team in the country, Oregon, in the Big Ten Championship, and a loss to, at the time, number three, Ohio State. The winning team will advance to the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona to play #3 Boise State. Boise State won the Mountain West and only suffered one three-point loss to Oregon.  

     Later on Saturday, the #12 Clemson Tigers will fly to Austin, Texas to play the #5 Texas Longhorns. Clemson won the ACC Championship over SMU, giving them an automatic bid but lost three games to Georgia, Louisville and South Carolina. On the other hand, The Longhorns were atop the SEC for a lot of the season but ended up losing the SEC Championship after their second loss to Georgia. The winner will play in the Peach Bowl against Big 12 Champion, the #4 Arizona State Sun Devils. Arizona State suffered two losses, one to Texas Tech and one to Cincinnati, but were able to redeem themselves in the Big 12 Championship against Iowa State. 

     Saturday night, the last game of the first round will be played in which the #9 Tennessee Volunteers will travel to the #8 Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus, Ohio. The Volunteers went 10-2 with losses to Georgia and Arkansas but had a big win against Alabama. The Buckeyes were on their way to the Big Ten Championship but got upset as 20.5-point favorites by their rivals Michigan. This loss gave Ohio State their second and lost them a chance to redeem themselves against Oregon, to whom they lost earlier this season. Waiting for the winner of this game in the Rose Bowl is the #1 Oregon Ducks. The Ducks were the only undefeated team going 15-0 and winning the Big Ten Championship in their first season in the Big 10. 

     The semifinals will take place a few weeks later, on Thursday, January 9 and Friday, January 10. The Orange Bowl takes place in Miami, Florida on Thursday while Friday the Sugar Bowl will be played in New Orleans. The National Championship will be played on January 20 in Atlanta, Georgia.  

     The Squire also asked Black who he thought would win the National Championship. He commented, “I think Texas will win the National Championship because they have an easy first round match-up and they have two capable quarterbacks.” Additionally, Black added, “If Georgia’s quarterback is healthy, they have a legit chance. My heart wants Penn State, but we just can’t seem to win the big game.” 

     If you are a football fan, tune in to the first 12-team college football playoffs. Games will be played on either ABC, TNT, or ESPN.