Winners and Losers of the College Football Playoff First-Round Games

After two weeks of anxious waiting, the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff has finally arrived.

The opening-round slate included four games, starting with Indiana’s trip to Notre Dame on Friday and a tripleheader of SMU at Penn State, Clemson at Texas and Tennessee at Ohio State on Saturday.

And, man, are there narratives to discuss.

Notre Dame and Penn State cruised to first-round victories, reigniting debates about whether Alabama and/or another team should have instead made the CFP. Fear not, my friends, we have opinions.

The winners and losers from the weekend are entirely subjective and not limited strictly to what happened on the field.

Expansion is fine. Provided you accept that arguments about the last teams included are inevitable—as I always say, simply look at the 68-team NCAA tournaments—expansion is fine.

The larger the CFP gets, though, the more leadership needs to stay true to what makes college football so great.

And that’s not a bunch of NFL stadiums.

Being in South Bend for Notre Dame’s 27-17 victory over Indiana, I can assure you it was absolutely electric. The crowd was fantastic. Indiana fans showed out, and Notre Dame supporters stayed loud all night.

If you think it mattered that the temperature dropped below freezing, well, you don’t know the Midwest.

Hosting later rounds of the College Football Playoff—particularly the national championship—at a neutral site is completely fair, and many NFL stadiums do a great job. They certainly have a place in this format.

But this—a raucous on-campus environment—is college football.

I love how Curt Cignetti exudes confidence and touts the achievements of an unparalleled team in Indiana history.

However, if you’re going to talk, you have to back it up.

That, unfortunately, did not happen in the loss at Notre Dame—and it wasn’t remotely close to actually being a 10-point game in reality. Indiana scored two touchdowns in the last few minutes of the fourth quarter to make a total blowout look a lot closer.

Eliminate those garbage-time scores, and IU essentially had 150 yards. It continued a frustrating trend of the Hoosiers not playing well offensively against their best opposition.

Indiana had a tremendous season with a program-record 11 wins, and Cignetti has rapidly improved IU’s football brand.

Simultaneously, the Hoosiers’ last outing was a major letdown.

“My main concern for SMU is turnovers,” I wrote in B/R’s predictions for the CFP’s opening round.

In five games this season, the Mustangs had multiple giveaways. Specifically, they had three turnovers in a loss to BYU and two against Clemson in the ACC Championship Game, their two Top 25 opponents.

So, uh, about that.

In the first quarter, Penn State’s Dom DeLuca returned an interception 23 yards for a score. Tony Rojas snagged a 59-yard pick six in the second quarter, and a red-zone interception from DeLuca both thwarted a key SMU scoring chance and led to a 21-0 advantage for the Nittany Lions.

That defense is hard enough to navigate without giving away the ball. Three turnovers in a half? A football death sentence.

Penn State’s offense is still a potential problem, but its opponents—Boise State is up next in the Fiesta Bowl—will have a difficult time moving the ball on this unrelenting group.

Notre Dame smoked Indiana on Friday night. Penn State wrecked SMU to open Saturday’s slate.

That’s exactly why Alabama should’ve made the CFP!

If you’re on social media, you probably saw a version of that statement. On the surface, I get it! I believe Alabama—or Miami, Ole Miss or South Carolina, for that matter—would’ve put up a better fight.

But, you know what? Alabama messed around and found out—twice! Losing to Vanderbilt and a bad Oklahoma team—plus Tennessee—should be penalized. Miami squandering a 21-point lead to Syracuse cannot be easily forgiven, nor should Ole Miss losing to Kentucky and Florida or South Carolina dropping three of its first six games!

Whatever, man, strength of schedule!

If you, as a school, choose to play in the SEC, you’ve decided a hefty paycheck is worth the challenging schedule. Results have to matter. So if they shouldn’t, we need to overhaul how rankings are crafted—and no CFP poll should be unveiled until the regular season is over.

Yes, it looks bad when Indiana scratches out three points before garbage time or SMU trails 28-0 at halftime. But it certainly wasn’t any worse than Alabama scoring three points in a 21-point beatdown by Oklahoma.

Step out of the hypothetical world and go win games.

Through 40 minutes, it looked like there’d be yet another first-round blowout. Texas roared out to a 28-10 halftime lead and extended the edge to 21 points early in the third quarter.

Clemson soon fought back, scoring the next two touchdowns to claw within 31-24. Suddenly, we had a game again.

Well, for a minute or so.

As was the case all night, Texas leaned on its running game and immediately answered. Jaydon Blue found a lane, shed two diving defenders and sprinted 77 yards for a soul-crushing touchdown. He pushed the Longhorns out in front 38-24, the game’s final margin.

Blue finished with 146 yards and two touchdowns, while Quintrevion Wisner added 110 yards and two scores. Throw in 35 more from Jerrick Gibson, and UT shredded Clemson for 292 yards on the ground.

Quinn Ewers had a solid performance with 202 yards, yet the Horns didn’t even need to rely on him. The buzz around Ewers and Arch Manning should be quieter before the quarterfinals against Arizona State.

Given that Texas is a defensive driven-team anyway, the performance was highly encouraging for its Playoff potential.

Upsets are a regular sight in college football. Those unexpected results are part of what makes the sport so beloved.

In the CFP’s opening round, though, there were no surprises.

Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas and Ohio State arrived as favorites, and each one advanced to the quarterfinals. Additionally, they all covered the spread. (Good teams win, great teams cover, right?)

Indiana and SMU both struggled on offense, then Clemson had a meltdown defensively. Tennessee had the worst showing of the weekend in a 42-17 loss at Ohio State, not crossing the 200-yard mark until the fourth quarter while hardly putting up any resistance on defense.

And this—while not expected—was not surprising.

Seven of the 10 previous CFP years included at least two double-digit margins in the three games, and none of the last six national championships have been within 15 points. Blowouts happen constantly in the Playoff.

Every team is flawed, and this stage can expose those weaknesses in a painfully clear way.

Does it seem like it’s been a very negative day? I contributed to that exasperated vibe, without a doubt. The discourse around Indiana’s loss—which continued with SMU’s poor outing—was maddening to me, and Tennessee’s disaster is the case in point.

Let’s end on an upbeat note.

Three weeks ago, Ohio State collapsed in a ghastly loss to Michigan. The storyline coming out of that result was Ryan Day’s job security, considering the Buckeyes’ fourth consecutive loss to Michigan also prevented them from reaching the Big Ten Championship Game. So, would a loss to Tennessee force a change in Columbus?

It’s reasonable to suggest we won’t be having that conversation anymore. Ohio State’s coaching staff had a tremendous game plan, and the players executed to near-perfection.

Will Howard bounced back to complete 24-of-29 passes for 311 yards, throwing a pair of touchdowns to freshman sensation Jeremiah Smith. TreVeyon Henderson rushed for 80 yards and two scores, and the defense held Nico Iamaleava to a meager 104 yards on 31 pass attempts. It was, in every sense of the word, domination.

Day’s proverbial seat is much cooler today.