College Football Playoffs: Indiana Takes the Win
The College Football Playoffs (CFP) expanded their bracket from four to 12 teams this year. This extension of the format has allowed more teams to get a chance to play for the national championship.
The format now, is a 12 team single elimination tournament which culminates in crowning a national champion. The five highest ranked conference champions automatically get in, and then the next seven ranked teams get in additionally. The seven teams are at large bids meaning that those teams get voted on by the CFP expert committee who rank the teams based on performance.
Pierce Malayil (‘26), a college football fanatic and Samo football player gave his thoughts on the expanded tournament.
“I really like the new college football playoff format. I think more teams is good for the game and fan experience, and more teams have a chance to win the national championship.” Malayil (‘26) said.
This year the five conference champions were Indiana (Big Ten), James Madison (Sun Belt), Georgia (SEC), Texas Tech (BIG 12) and Tulane (AAC). The other seven teams were Alabama, Miami, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon and Texas A&M.
This was a dynamic grouping with many storylines. Indiana came into this tournament undefeated, looking to win their first ever championship. This was Miami’s first time in the CFP playoff, looking to secure their first title since 2001. Additionally JMU and Tulane squeaked into these playoffs as not “football schools.” and then finally the usual suspects, the perennial college football powerhouses like Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Georgia.
In the first round of this year’s playoffs Oregon beat James Madison, Alabama beat Oklahoma, Ole Miss beat Tulane, and Miami beat Texas A&M. One storyline from this round was Alabama’s comeback win against Oklahoma, which is the largest comeback in CFP history. Down 17-0, Alabama came back to win 34-24 scoring 27 straight points. This comeback in large part was helped by Alabama’s offensive shifts which kept the Oklahoma team off balance.
The second round featured the winners from the first round vs. seeds one-four who got a bye. A bye is classified as teams that are seeded high enough so they didn’t have to play in the opening round, which gives an advantage to these various teams. This round had three very distinct types of games.
The 10 seed Miami pulled off a historic upset over the two seed Ohio State which The New York Times called the biggest upset in CFP history. This continued Miami’s Cinderella run, as the lowest ranked team remaining in the playoff. The most thrilling game of the round featured Ole Miss and Georgia, that was decided by a game winning field goal with 6 seconds left by Ole Miss. Prior to the victory, Ole Miss overcame a 21 point deficit, in the second half to set up the field goal. The last two games of this round were defined by pure dominance. Number one seed Indiana beat Alabama 38-3, Additionally Oregon used a stellar defensive performance to shut out Texas Tech 23-0.
In the semifinals of this tournament spectators witnessed two very different games, one a blowout and the other a tense and close game.
Indiana asserted its dominance in a decisive victory over Oregon, 56-22. Star quarterback Fernando Mendoza had a stellar game, throwing for five touchdowns and leading the team to victory. The second game was a back and forth thriller, with Miami ultimately prevailing over Ole Miss. Miami quarterback Carson Beck led a fourth quarter drive, and rushed for a touchdown with 18 seconds left to win the game.
This set up a matchup of Indiana vs. Miami. The number one team in the country vs. a 10 seed. Indiana was considered the favorite in this game, with ESPN Football Power Index giving them a 68-79 percent of winning. This game was played on Jan. 19 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Florida, at the University of Miami’s home stadium. Despite Miami’s home field advantage, the crowd evenly split between Miami and Indiana fans, highlighting Indiana’s excitement at a chance of winning its first ever national championship.
The game itself was extremely close and exciting. Indiana looked to be in control for most of the first half, and led comfortably at halftime, 10-0. But in the third quarter Miami showed fight and launched a comeback helped by star running back Mark Fletcher scoring two touchdowns. The pivotal play of the game was a 4th and 5 that Indiana had on Miami’s 12 yard line. Fernando Mendoza ran the ball and dived into the endzone in what will surely go down as the greatest play in Indiana’s history. Miami came back to be down six points and had a chance to go down the field to win the game. But Jamari Sharp of Indiana’s defence intercepted a pass which sealed the national championship for the Indiana Hoosiers. The popularity of the expansion from four to twelve teams has prompted many experts to suggest an even further expansion to 16 teams.
Whether the expansion from 12 to 16 teams happens, there is a lot of support pushing for it.
“In my opinion, I would expand it to 16 teams because I feel like this would make the playoff even more exciting for the fans and the sport.”
Malayil (‘26) said.