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Well, that didn’t take long!
Three of the top four seeds in this year’s College Football Playoffs bit the dust in the quarterfinals this week.
Only top-ranked Indiana (now 14-0) remains alive heading into next week’s semifinal round.
We are into Year #2 of the 12-team College Football Playoffs. Last year, all four top seeded teams lost after a bye week. The 2024 top seed Oregon lost to eventual champion and #8 seed Ohio State. Second seeded Georgia, #3 Boise State, and #4 Arizona State lost in the quarterfinal round, too.
This year, add three more top teams to the “one and done” party.
Say good-bye to #2 seed Ohio State, #3 Georgia, and #4 Texas Tech. Those three teams all had to wait nearly a month before ESPN (oops, I mean the College Football Playoff Committee) allowed them to play their first game in this drawn-out post-season event.
The top-seed Indiana Hoosiers finally figured out the secret formula on how to survive the long wait to play football again. They blasted #9 seed Alabama 38-3 on New Year’s Day to become the only favorite remaining in this year’s College Football Playoffs.
Here are a few thoughts about this week’s four College Football Playoff games
Game 1 – Cotton Bowl – #10 seed Miami (FL) 24, #2 Ohio State 14
The Miami Hurricanes displayed a powerful gale force defense in blowing away 10-point favorite Ohio State Buckeyes in Wednesday night’s New Year’s Eve playoff game.
The Canes jumped to a 14-0 halftime advantage and never looked back.
Miami’s bruising running attack featuring senior Mark Fletcher, Jr. out-rushed the defending national champion Ohio State 153 yards to just 45. The ability to keep the football out of the Buckeyes’ hands late in the game hindered the chances of Ohio State making a comeback.
Miami will play in next Thursday’s semifinal game at the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix.
Game 2 – Orange Bowl – #5 Oregon 23, #4 Texas Tech 0
Texas Tech definitely has a first-class defensive unit! This game’s final score should have been much, much worse for the Red Raiders if their exceptional defense had allowed a few more touchdowns in this very lopsided affair.
The Oregon Ducks’ offense misfired on several opportunities but still had plenty of points to beat the worst offense (by far) we have seen in recent college football memory.
Need an example? Texas Tech’s senior quarterback Behren Morton passed for just 137 yards, lost 32 yards on six carries, was intercepted twice, fumbled once, and sacked four times. Ouch.
Oregon (now 13-1) moves on to play next Friday night against top seeded Indiana in a rematch of a game won by the Hoosiers 30-20 at Eugene, Oregon in October.
Game 3 – Rose Bowl – #1 Indiana 38, #9 Alabama 3
The 14-0 Hoosiers dominated this game and put on a clinic in dispatching ESPN’s favorite team, Alabama. The pre-game banter from ESPN’s GameDay crew came across as nauseatingly in favor of the mighty Crimson Tide taking down the overrated pretenders from Indiana.
As former College GameDay crew member (and Indiana football coach) Lee Corso might say, “Not so fast!”
Indiana’s Heisman-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza efficiently completed 14 of 16 passes for 192 yards including three touchdowns.
The balanced Hoosier running game tacked on another 215 yards and two more scores.
Alabama ended its season at 11-4. Coach Kalen DeBoer and his team will face more scrutiny in the coming weeks after being chosen ahead of 10-2 Notre Dame for a playoff spot.
Indiana advances into the semifinal round next Friday night in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.
Game 4 – Sugar Bowl – #6 Ole Miss 39, #3 Georgia 34
Ole Miss fans are thrilled about this post-Lane Kiffin team as it moved to 2-0 without its former coach in the post-season.
Rebels quarterback Trinidad Chambliss continued to impress on New Year’s Day. He led Ole Miss with a heroic fourth quarter rally to subdue the Georgia Bulldogs 39-34 in the biggest thriller of this season’s College Football Playoffs. Chambliss passed for 362 yards and two touchdowns as the Rebels battled back and forth with an equally tough Georgia squad.
Ole Miss is now 13-1 and will face Miami in the Fiesta Bowl next Thursday night.
How did SwampSwami’s predictions about these four games fare?
Not too bad! My final story of 2025 gave my prediction for these four College Football Playoff quarterfinal games.
I was 2-2 in correctly picking Indiana and Ole Miss to advance.
Ohio State and Texas Tech let me down, but both deserved to go home after disappointing outings.
A new champion in both the major college FBS and small college FCS will be crowned in January!
Ohio State’s loss on Wednesday night insured a new champion for the large school FBS group.
Likewise, North Dakota State’s loss to Illinois State in the small college FCS Playoffs insures a new champ on the lower division.
The Redbirds (12-4) will face Montana State (13-2) in the FCS championship game on Monday night on ESPN at 6:30PM CST.
Who is the happiest college football coach this week not participating in the College Football Playoffs?
That would be former Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin.
He signed a new contract to coach at LSU beginning next season. The Ole Miss Athletics Director told Kiffin to hit the road to Baton Rouge and wouldn’t allow him to coach this year’s team in the College Football Playoffs.
Lane Kiffin is definitely rooting for his former players to keep on winning.
He still loves his players from this season’s Ole Miss team. Kiffin’s new contract at LSU calls for him to be paid the same bonus money he would have earned had he been coaching this year’s Ole Miss team in the College Football Playoffs.
LSU wrote a check for $150,000 to Coach Lane Kiffin after his former team at Ole Miss qualified as a participant in the College Football Playoffs.
The coach then pocketed another $250,000 after Ole Miss’ first round 41-10 win over Tulane.
Coach Kiffin just added another $500,000 – to be paid by LSU – after Thursday’s thrilling victory by Ole Miss over Georgia.
Should Ole Miss win next week’s semifinal game against Miami, Lane Kiffin will pad his bank account with another $750,000. A national title by the Rebels in two weeks would cost LSU another $1 million.
As of today, the tab for LSU is now up to $900,000.
Two more wins by the Ole Miss Rebels would bring the total being paid by the Tigers to new coach Lane Kiffin to an obscene $2 ½ million!
Let’s go ahead and try to pick the two CFP semifinal winners!
Semifinal 1 – Fiesta Bowl – Thursday, January 8 – 6:30PM CST on ESPN
#6 seed Ole Miss vs. #10 Miami (FL)
Miami has been slaying giants during the first two rounds. Their opening game defensive struggle at Texas A&M featured 106,000 screaming fans making life miserable for the Hurricanes’ offense. However, Miami’s defense and running game prevailed in a 10-3 squeaker.
Those same two elements (defense and a pounding running attack) carried Miami to a 24-14 victory in the quarterfinals against defending champion Ohio State on Wednesday night.
Ole Miss has scored 80 points in its first two playoff games. Miami has allowed just 17 points in its two playoff games. Something’s gotta give.
If Ole Miss can put 27 or more points on the board on Thursday night, it should be enough for victory.
Get your checkbook ready again, LSU athletics department!
Prediction: Ole Miss 30, Miami 24
Semifinal 2 – Peach Bowl – Friday, January 9 – 6:30PM CST on ESPN
#1 seed Indiana vs. #5 Oregon
This rematch will be conducted in a domed stadium in Atlanta. Did you know that neither team has played a game in a domed indoor facility all season?
Oregon’s defense surrendered 34 points to James Madison in Round 1 and then shut-out Texas Tech in the quarterfinals. Go figure.
Texas Tech played its worst offensive game in decades, though. I don’t think Oregon is going to shut down a very balanced Indiana attack – especially on artificial turf.
Oregon must find a way to score early and often and put Indiana into an early hole. The Hoosiers’ balanced run/pass offense operates like a Mack truck to wear down opponents and has rarely been required to come from behind.
I like Indiana’s unheralded but highly effective defense to take the spotlight next Friday night.
Prediction: Indiana 34, Oregon 21