No matter who wins the natty, it will have been a long time coming
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Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior Writer
Redemption. Retribution. Revenge.
Whichever of these words you revere most, they all relate as the College Football Playoff rolls into the reckoning that is this week’s semifinals — a quartet of stories that are wildly varied, but at their core essentially the same.
The long-awaited expanded playoff that began with a dozen teams is down to four. Glaringly absent from the remaining field are the teams that have dominated the CFP since its inception. Clemson and Georgia have been eliminated. Oregon, ranked No. 1 for much of the season, also has been sent home. Former champs Alabama and LSU, along with last year’s finalists Michigan and Washington, didn’t even make the field.
All of that has opened the doors to these final four programs, giving them a chance to reverse their longtime reputations — in some cases, very, very longtime — with the big gold magic eraser that is only two wins from their grasp.
Notre Dame versus Penn State in the Orange Bowl. Ohio State versus Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Two of these teams will move on and get a shot at easing their perpetual pain. The other two will enter another winter amid the familiar vicious cycle of ice-cold doubt.
“I think that much of that storyline in these games will center around the coaches, and that’s fine. We are big boys; we can handle that,” said James Franklin, in his 11th season as Penn State’s head coach but in his first CFP. “But to me, the real story is the opportunity we all have to reward these great universities and the people who have supported us through thick and thin. To bring that championship feeling back to this town, that will make every single step to get there worth it.”
There have been so many steps. But for these four programs, it seems every stride with traction has been inevitably outnumbered and slowed by slips and trips on the turf of their most despised rivals.
“The same guys are in the room as was there a month ago,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said late last week following his team’s revenge win over Oregon, a team it had lost to in October in Eugene. “Nothing that’s happened in the past or really the noise that’s [outside the] building has anything to do with our preparation and our focus and our process. That’s what we’ve been diving into.
“We don’t need any extra motivation to win this game. One thing that does motivate our team is an opportunity for the team to play for another week together.”
The Buckeyes, with their much-ballyhooed NIL-powered roster, lost two games during the regular season, most glaringly The Game against Michigan, a gross 13-10 defeat to the unranked Wolverines, their fourth rivalry loss in a row, hence Day’s reference to “a month ago.” It has been a decade since Ohio State celebrated its last national title, the program’s eighth, earned in the very first edition of the CFP. Even now, after rolling to playoff victories over Tennessee and Oregon, a large swath of OSU social media is still angry at Day for his lack of Big Ten titles and wins against That Team Up North.
Ohio State faces Texas, the program that coined the phrase “We’re back” only to repeatedly lose that coin beneath the seat of its burnt orange pickup truck. The Longhorns spent some time this season, their first in the SEC, ranked No. 1 in the country. But they also lost the two biggest pre-CFP games they played, both against fellow part-time top spot resident Georgia. Their last natty was earned in perhaps the greatest college football game ever played, closing out the 2005 season by beating USC in the Rose Bowl. But that was nearly a decade before the playoff existed, earned instead in the eighth edition of the BCS Championship Game.
“The history of what a place is and how it became what it is, is the very reason you want to work here, but there is a balance in using that past to push into the future instead of resting on laurels,” said Steve Sarkisian, who is in his fourth year at coach in Austin but lived that same past-as-prologue balance during stints at USC, Alabama and even in his time as a player at BYU.
“People ask me about the pressure from the fans, the people who have loved the University of Texas their whole lives, but to me, it comes from doing right by the names on the buildings and the statues and paintings you see of the coaches and players who were here before us. I tell our guys that we have a chance to be one of those people. Forever. But only if we take care of the here and now.”
The entire Notre Dame campus feels like what Sark described: one giant football museum. Literal woken echoes standing watch over every quad and every hallway. South Bend is undeniably one of the cornerstones of college football. The place of Knute Rockne, the Four Horsemen and a room full of Heisman Trophies.
But while that Golden Domed history has always been its greatest asset, it has also proved to be its heaviest anchor, constantly pointed to as the only reason the independent program is allowed to remain in the big room with the Power 4 conferences. Critics have screamed, why else would a program that has been bounced out of two previous CFP appearances and blown out in its lone BCS title game visit (a 42-14 loss to Alabama in 2012) keep getting postseason looks? The freshest of the school’s 11 national titles was won in January 1989, in the waning days of Ronald Reagan’s second term as president. This season’s 13-1 team has only one blemish, but it’s the equivalent of having a giant red pimple on the end of one’s nose, an inexplicable Week 2 home loss to Northern Illinois, which finished seventh in the 12-team MAC.
And no college football program has been dealt more denial of glory than the one in State College, Pennsylvania. Like Day, Franklin is routinely ripped by his fan base, unhappy with his record in big games. When the Nittany Lions defeated No. 8 Boise State in the CFP quarterfinals, Franklin’s mark against top-10 teams improved to 4-19. That record includes losses this season to Ohio State and Oregon, ranked No. 4 and No. 1, respectively, at the time.
But the unhappiness in Happy Valley runs much deeper than merely this season. The Nittany Lions have posted 13 undefeated seasons but have only two national titles to show for it, as Joe Paterno had five unbeaten teams that were infamously denied nattys by pollsters and politics. The 1994 squad carried two Heisman finalists and 15 future NFL draft picks, won the Big Ten and stomped Oregon in the Rose Bowl, but in the pre-BCS era was voted second behind Nebraska in both major polls. The school’s only two national titles also came during Reagan’s presidency, won in 1982 and 1986.
For perspective, here’s cell phones from years of each CFP semifinalist’s last national title: Ohio State, 2014. Texas, 2005. Notre Dame, 1988. Penn State, 1986. pic.twitter.com/EgL96u7h7z
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) January 3, 2025
Four proud brands. Four classic college towns. Four all-time powerhouse programs, all ranked among the seven winningest teams in the 155-year history of the sport. All, finally, with the possibility for renewal, revival, resurrection … whatever motivational word you choose. As long as it results in the release of repressed revelry Jan. 20 in Atlanta.
“This job is like no other because of what it is, where it is, and I think the other three coaches will probably tell you the same about their jobs,” said Marcus Freeman, in only his third full season as Notre Dame’s head coach. He celebrated his first birthday the week after Penn State won its last national title and blew out three candles right after Notre Dame’s natty. He is also a former All-Big Ten linebacker at Ohio State who played against Penn State and Texas. “One of my favorite aspects of this job, and I think they will tell you the same, is the chance to educate people on the incredible history of this place. The chance to add to that history, restore some of it and the pride that comes with it, that’s not pressure. That’s a privilege.”
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
DANIA BEACH, Fla. — While discussing the opportunity that awaits Penn State in the College Football Playoff, coach James Franklin said Wednesday that the showdown against Notre Dame is about “representing our schools and our conferences.”
Franklin then caught himself, realizing Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman was sitting just to his right.
“Or our conference, excuse me,” Franklin said.
Penn State will be representing the Big Ten against FBS independent Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl on Thursday night (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Hard Rock Stadium.
The Nittany Lions reached the Big Ten championship game before earning a No. 6 seed in the first 12-team CFP, while the Fighting Irish made the playoff as an at-large and earned the No. 7 seed despite playing in one fewer game.
Franklin said he thinks a larger CFP ultimately requires more uniformity around college football, including every team to be part of a conference and playing the same number of league games. Notre Dame, one of three remaining FBS independents, sees its status as central to the school’s identity and has resisted chances to join the Big Ten and other conferences over the years. The Fighting Irish compete in the ACC for most of their other major sports, and they have a scheduling agreement with the ACC in football.
“It should be consistent across college football,” Franklin said. “This is no knock at [Freeman] or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference. I think everybody should play a conference championship game, or nobody should play a conference champion championship game. I think everybody should play the same number of conference games.”
Penn State reached the CFP by playing nine conference games as well as the Big Ten championship game against No. 1 Oregon, which defeated the Nittany Lions 45-37 on Dec. 7. The Big 12 also has maintained a nine-game league slate, while the SEC and ACC have stayed at eight conference games.
Franklin, who coached at Vanderbilt before Penn State, praised the SEC for remaining at eight league games, which the league’s coaches wanted. The SEC has repeatedly considered going to nine league games during Franklin’s time in the Big Ten.
“I was not a math major at East Stroudsburg, but just the numbers are going to make things more challenging if you’re playing one more conference game,” he said.
Franklin also highlighted other areas of the sport that could be made more uniform, including starting the season a week earlier to ease the strain of playing more games with an expanded playoff. He reiterated his desire to appoint a college football commissioner unaffiliated with a school or a conference, and once again mentioned longtime coach and current ESPN analyst Nick Saban as an option, along with former Washington and Boise State coach Chris Petersen, now a Fox college football analyst, and Dave Clawson, who recently stepped down as Wake Forest’s coach.
“We need somebody that is looking at it from a big-picture perspective,” Franklin said.
Freeman acknowledged that Notre Dame prides itself on its independence. He said the team uses the weekend of conference championships, when they’re guaranteed not to be playing, as another open week for recovery and other priorities.
Notre Dame ended the regular season Nov. 30 and did not play again until Dec. 20, when it hosted Indiana in a first-round CFP game. In helping craft the format for the 12-team CFP, former Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick agreed that if the Irish were selected, they would not be eligible to earn a bye into the quarterfinals.
Freeman noted that he doesn’t have a strong opinion on whether college football needs more uniformity.
“I’m a guy that just [thinks], ‘Tell us what we’re doing and let’s go, and you move forward,'” Freeman said. “I love where we’re at right now. [Athletic director] Pete Bevacqua and our Notre Dame administration will continue to make decisions that are best for our program.”
Franklin said his desire for greater consistency stems from the CFP selection process and the difficulty of committee members to sort through teams with vastly different paths and profiles, and determine strength of schedule and other factors.
“How do you put those people that are in that room to make a really important decision that impacts the landscape of college football, and they can’t compare apples to apples or oranges to oranges?” Franklin said. “I think that makes it very, very difficult.”
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