The 12-team College Football Playoff field was revealed Sunday afternoon, and with it came plenty of questions:
What was the reasoning behind selecting SMU over Alabama?
Why was a G5 program prioritized over conference champions from the ACC and Big 12?
Why was Oregon – the top overall seed in the playoff – given the hardest path among teams that received first-round byes?
With the CFP set to get underway on Dec. 20, the focus of the college football universe is now on Saturday night’s Heisman Trophy presentation, where Travis Hunter is the heavy favorite to take home the most prodigious individual award in the sport, but does Ashton Jeanty have a chance to top Hunter in the Heisman voting?
FOX Sports college football writers Laken Litman, RJ Young and Michael Cohen are here to answer the biggest questions following this past weekend’s CFP announcement and ahead of the Heisman Trophy presentation:
What was the biggest takeaway you had when the College Football Playoff field was revealed on Sunday?
Laken Litman: SMU was able to get in over Alabama, despite having a weaker strength of schedule. It speaks to the committee’s focus on the importance of conference championship games that they didn’t disqualify SMU for losing to Clemson on a walk-off 56-yard field goal. Perhaps if the Mustangs had been blown out in the ACC title game, it would have been a different story. But it’s hard to make the argument that almost winning your conference championship game is worse than losing to Oklahoma 24-3 in November.
RJ Young: We should do away with seeding the highest ranked conference champions and just allow for automatic qualification going to the Power 4 conference champions and the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion. The fact that Texas is ranked No. 3 in the country but is seeded behind No. 9 Boise State and No. 12 Arizona State is a loud flaw in the system.
Michael Cohen: One of the more noteworthy trends from this year’s bracket reveal was how much credit the selection committee seemed to funnel toward teams that qualified for conference championship games in the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 — regardless of how things unfolded on the field during Saturday’s action. The four teams on the short end of the scoreboard for those league title games were Texas, Penn State, SMU and Iowa State, each of whom only dropped an average of 1.5 spots in the final CFP rankings. The Longhorns dipped from No. 2 to No. 3 after succumbing to Georgia in overtime; the Nittany Lions dropped from No. 3 to No. 4 after their comeback fell short against Oregon; the Mustangs reversed from No. 8 to No. 10 after losing to Clemson on a last-second field goal; the Cyclones shifted from No. 16 to No. 18 despite getting demolished by Arizona State.
That all four teams either hardly moved or slid far shorter distances than what they might have for identical losses in the regular season becomes an important data point for the impending conversation about how to handle conference championship games moving forward. There are some coaches who still value what it means to win their league and hoist a trophy in early December. To others, the injury and résumé risks associated with playing in a conference title game aren’t worth it when the seasons are already longer than they’ve ever been. But the committee made its opinion clear by refusing to allow teams like Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee and Alabama to climb the ladder on a weekend when they weren’t playing. For now, at least, there’s still upside to competing in a conference championship game.
Which program do you believe has the most favorable path to winning the College Football Playoff national championship?
RJ: Georgia. The Bulldogs get the first round path that is coveted by many. The extra week off also gives quarterback Carson Beck and punter Brett Thorson to heal before playing the winner of Notre Dame vs. Indiana. The Bulldogs wouldn’t play a conference champion until the semifinals and that would be Boise State. Other possible semifinal opponents include SMU and Penn State. With the semifinal being the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, the S-E-C! advantage will be palpable. A win there and Georgia is playing for its third national title in four years.
Michael: It’s definitely Georgia. There wasn’t much about the bracket that was going to appease SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, whose conference only has three entrants in this year’s field — one fewer than the Big Ten — thanks to Alabama’s implosion against Oklahoma in late November. But the friendly route afforded to the second-seeded Bulldogs is certainly something to celebrate. By winning the SEC Championship Game and earning a first-round bye, Georgia maximized both the recovery time for injured quarterback Carson Beck (elbow) and the number of practice reps backup Gunner Stockton can take before the Bulldogs return to action in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, at which point they’ll face the winner of No. 10 Indiana and No. 7 Notre Dame.
Should head coach Kirby Smart and his team advance to the semifinals, they’ll face either No. 11 SMU, No. 6 Penn State or No. 3 Boise State — none of which are likely to scare the Bulldogs, who won the national title in 2021 and 2022. For Georgia to have both Boise (Mountain West Conference) and SMU (first season in a power conference since 1995) on its side of the bracket represents a huge coup considering the far more challenging path No. 1 Oregon appears to have. The five potential opponents on Georgia’s side of the bracket have combined to make seven CFP appearances since the event’s inception in 2014. The Ducks’ quintet of potential opponents have combined to make 17 CFP appearances in that same time period. And as Michigan demonstrated by needing three consecutive CFP berths before reaching the national championship game, experience can matter quite a bit in this event.
Laken: Georgia.
The Bulldogs earned a first-round bye after beating Texas to win the SEC championship. During his post-game TV interview, coach Kirby Smart called out the SEC commissioner, saying the victory means “rest for a team that Greg Sankey and his staff sent on the road all year long. We get to take a little bit of a break and get ready for the College Football Playoff. This team needs some rest.”
Georgia won’t have to play again until Jan. 1, where it will face the winner of Indiana and Notre Dame at the Sugar Bowl. This could potentially benefit quarterback Carson Beck, who injured his elbow on the final play of the first half vs. Texas. His status to return is currently unknown. If he can’t play, backup QB Gunner Stockton proved to be a worthy replacement, especially as his teammates around him stepped up. Plus, Georgia is on the more favorable side of the bracket. If they win the Sugar Bowl, they’d play the winner of Boise State vs. Penn State or SMU in the Orange Bowl semifinal, and then wouldn’t have to play the likes of Texas, Ohio State or Oregon until the national championship game.
Ohio State, Texas, Penn State and Notre Dame will all host first-round playoff matchups. All four are exceptional programs with outstanding venues. If you had to pick one of these programs that you’re most excited to see host a College Football Playoff game, which is it?
Michael: Based purely on venue and game day atmosphere, the answer would be Penn State. Few locations in college football, if any, pack the punch that Beaver Stadium does when the stands are jammed and the White Out is in full effect. It’s a difficult place for any team to play, let alone a program like SMU that rejoined a major conference in 2024 for the first time since the Southwest Conference ruptured nearly 30 years ago. The Nittany Lions should have the best home-field advantage of anyone hosting a game later this month.
But if things like narrative and emotion and the current state of a program’s fan base are factored into the equation, then the answer has to be Ohio State. What type of reception will the Buckeyes and their embattled head coach, Ryan Day, get when they return to Ohio Stadium for the first time since losing a fourth consecutive game to Michigan? Just how noxious will the energy be if Ohio State’s offense struggles in the first or second quarter? There’s still a distinct possibility that Day is coaching for his job over the next few weeks, and the cauldron of noise surrounding him on Dec. 21 will include plenty of reminders.
Laken: Penn State.
This is the kind of environment everyone envisioned when the CFP expanded to 12 teams and announced the first round would be played on campuses. James Franklin has already called for a White Out, which could be a double entendre if it snows in Happy Valley on Dec. 21. Currently, temperatures are expected to be in the 20s and 30s. Beaver Stadium fits 106,572 rowdy fans at capacity, which will undoubtedly be the wildest environment this SMU team has ever played in.
RJ: Texas — the team with the most to gain from a first-round matchup against a proven CFP national title contender in a city capable of hosting Formula 1, South by Southwest and one hell of a tailgate party.
The Heisman Trophy winner will be named Saturday night. Does Ashton Jeanty have a chance to win this award, or does Travis Hunter have the award locked up?
Laken: Travis Hunter is the heavy favorite to win. Perhaps if this award were given out after the national championship and Ashton Jeanty had more games, potentially, to show off his prowess in the CFP, he might have turned more heads. But Hunter’s ability to excel as a two-way player in a way that no college player has done in the past, gives him the best odds at winning the Heisman this year.
RJ: I trust Heisman voters to get this right like I trusted Ohio State to beat Michigan this season: They’ll find a way to mess this up. But if they don’t, Hunter ought to win in a landslide for his production and presence at wideout and corner. He ranks No. 2 among cornerbacks and No. 5 among wide receivers in grades distributed by Pro Football Focus. He is the first player in history with at least 90 catches, 1,000 yards receiving, 10 receiving TDs and four INTs in a single season.
Michael: These days, it seems like everyone has their own individual criteria for what the Heisman Trophy represents. Some people believe the award equates to college football’s Most Valuable Player, just like you’d see in the NFL or NBA. Others believe it should go to the best player on one of the sport’s best teams, an irreplaceable cog on a legitimate championship contender. And there are still others who believe the award should be reserved for someone whose athletic exploits are truly magnificent, like Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson in 2016 or USC running back Reggie Bush in 2005, among others.
My personal preference skews toward the latter, which is why Travis Hunter deserves to win the award. For as amazing as Boise State tailback Ashton Jeanty continues to be — there’s a chance he’ll break the sport’s single-season rushing record held by former Oklahoma State running back Barry Sanders (2,628 yards in 1988) — the physical phenomenon that is Hunter continues to blow me away. He’s logged 1,422 snaps from scrimmage this season (713 defense, 709 offense) to nearly double Jeanty’s total of 727 snaps and was incredibly impactful on both sides of the ball. That he’s good enough to be drafted in the first round at both wide receiver and cornerback speaks to the kind of generational athleticism Hunter possesses. To me, that’s the kind of greatness the Heisman Trophy should reward.
Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of “Strong Like a Woman,” published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her at @LakenLitman.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him at @RJ_Young.
Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.
[Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.]
Get more from College Football Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
