And now, 16 thoughts from an unanticipated three-day College Football Playoff quarterfinal bonanza.
1. Let me start by acknowledging the awful New Year’s tragedy in New Orleans, a beautiful city that goes all out every year for its much-beloved bowl game. I have made many Sugar Bowl visits to the French Quarter, and in fact, the last time I was there, stayed right on Canal Street. Hats off to all involved for figuring out how to hold the game in a timely manner while ensuring the safety of all who attended.
2. The folks who designed the 12-team College Football Playoff did everything in their power to reward conference champions, from automatic berths to byes to, in a couple of cases, artificially high seeding. But they can’t win the games for them. And so, the first semifinal field of the new era will comprise the SEC’s runner-up (Texas), the Big Ten’s runner-up (Penn State), the Big Ten’s fourth-place team (Ohio State) and an independent (Notre Dame).
They’ll probably go and tweak the format next year. In the meantime, Notre Dame-Penn State (Thursday’s Orange Bowl) and Ohio State-Texas (Friday’s Cotton Bowl) is a heck of a doubleheader.
3. The first thing that stands out: three schools from the East and Midwest, none from the Southeast (though Texas, located in the Southwest, is now in the Southeastern Conference). It’s like 1976 came back from the dead. We’d become so accustomed to schools from the traditional SEC footprint (including the ACC’s Clemson and Florida State) dominating the sport that I’d genuinely come to believe by the mid-2010s that Ohio State was the only remaining northern school capable of winning a national championship.
But then Michigan did it last season. And now, a year later, either Penn State or Notre Dame will play for their first since the 1980s. The portal and NIL have been gradually negating the South’s geographic advantage in high school recruiting. Not to mention the SEC just wasn’t very good this year.
If only Brian Kelly had seen what was coming, he may never have gotten the chance to enjoy that delicious Texas Bowl rib.
GO DEEPER
Mandel: Penn State powers into CFP semis to carry Big Deri flag, while SEC no longer looks untouchable
4. Notre Dame, at long last, has vanquished its 31-year drought without a major bowl victory. That the seventh-seeded Irish (13-1) did it by toppling No. 2 seed and SEC champion Georgia (11-3), 23-10, must have made it an even sweeter Sugar Bowl win. Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, formerly Kelly’s defensive coordinator, and DC Al Golden have spent the past three years building a Georgia-esque defense that sent relentless pressure at the Bulldogs’ first-time starting quarterback Gunner Stockton and shut down their running game.
Mind you, the Irish’s offense struggled even more so, averaging just 4.0 yards per play. But Notre Dame completely swung the game just before halftime. RJ Oben’s strip-sack and Junior Tuihalamaka’s recovery with 33 seconds left set up an immediate Riley Leonard 13-yard touchdown pass to go up 13-3. Then, Jayden Harrison opened the third quarter with a 98-yard kick return touchdown. That defense, even with mounting injuries, was not going to squander a 20-3 lead. To top it off, Freeman successfully pulled off one of the more creative special teams tricks you’ll see to snuff out the Bulldogs’ last hopes.
