With the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff, college football fans were excited to watch a plethora of great games. At least, so they thought.
With so much uproar over who deserves the last playoff spot amongst a balanced field, everyone expected close games in these first-round matchups.
As the great Lee Corso would say… “not so fast my friend.”
No. 5 Texas beat No. 12 Clemson 38-24, No. 6 Penn State crushed No. 11 SMU 38-10, No. 7 Notre Dame rolled past No. 10 Indiana 27-17, and No. 8 Ohio State cruised to a 42-17 victory over No. 9 Tennessee.
CFB Playoff: Blowouts Galore As Texas, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Penn State Win
It may seem strange to have so many blowouts in these first-round games, but looking back at history, this is somewhat common.
Before the system expanded this year, the four-team playoff system was in-place from 2014-2023. The average margin of victories for each team that prevailed in the first round? 17 points.
The three first-round games followed that trend, with an average margin of victory of 17.3 points. Here’s a closer look at some of the blowout games in the four-team playoff. Consistently every season, there seemed to be one playoff semifinal that was close, whereas the other wasn’t. Here’s a look at some past playoff scores:
- 2014-15: No. 2 Oregon 59, Florida State 20
- 2015-16: No. 2 Alabama 38, No. 3 Michigan State 3
- 2016-17: No. 1 Alabama 24, No. 4 Washington 7
- 2016: 17: No. 2 Clemson 31, No. 3 Ohio State 0
- 2017-18: No. 4 Alabama 24, No. 1 Clemson 6
- 2018-19: No. 2 Clemson 30, No. 3 Notre Dame 3
- 2019-20: No. 1 LSU 63, No. 4 Oklahoma 28
- 2020-21: No. 1 Alabama 31, No. 4 Notre Dame 14
- 2020-21: No. 3 Ohio State 49, No. 2 Clemson 28
- 2021-22: No. 1 Alabama 27, No. 4 Cincinnati 6
- 2021: 22: No. 3 Georgia 34, No. 2 Michigan 11
The outliers in which both semifinal games were one-score games came during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Those years, we had No. 3 TCU beat No. 2 Michigan 51-45 in the Fiesta Bowl, and No. 1 Georgia beat No. 4 Ohio State 42-41 in the Peach Bowl. Just last season, No. 1 Michigan beat No. 4 Alabama 27-20 in overtime in the Rose Bowl, and No. 2 Washington beat No. 3 Texas 37-31 in the Sugar Bowl.
We’ve even seen some blowouts in the national title games in the four-team playoff system. Here are some of the more notable ones:
- 2022-23: No. 1 Georgia 65, No. 3 TCU 7
- 2021-22: No. 1 Alabama 52, No. 3 Ohio State 24
- 2019-22: No. 2 Clemson 44, No. 1 Alabama 16
- 2014-15: No. 4 Ohio State 42, No. 2 Oregon 20
Given that this is the first iteration of the 12-team playoff, it also makes the expanded system an easy target. More eyeballs on these games makes them even more ripe for criticism.
This 12-team playoff isn’t going away anytime soon. The television networks, the respective schools and the playoff itself is making too much money to go back to a smaller field. In fact, the system expanding to 16 teams as soon as 2026 is still reportedly on the table.
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CFB Playoff: Blowouts Galore As Texas, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Penn State Win
