Without 2024's College Football Playoff expansion, we'd have gotten a four-team playoff pitting Georgia and Texas against each other for the third time and Oregon and Penn State against each other for the second. Ohio State wouldn't have gotten an extra mulligan and used it to shift into World Destroyer Mode, Cam Skattebo wouldn't have produced 242 yards from scrimmage in his lone CFP game, and good lord, we would have been arguing about Penn State vs. Notre Dame for the last spot so much in the final weeks of the season.
Even with only one genuine classic game in the first two rounds, in other words, the inaugural 12-team playoff has been more fun than the alternative. And we still get three more chances to produce something incredible. The CFP semifinals kick off Thursday with two 1980s rivals, Notre Dame and Penn State, playing a game that almost couldn't possibly be closer on paper, and then the hottest team in all the land (Ohio State) facing Texas and its clutch former Buckeyes quarterback (Quinn Ewers) on Friday. Who advances to the national title game? Here's everything you need to know about the semifinal round.
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Best players in the semis
Notre Dame-Penn State
Ohio State-Texas
Biggest plays of the CFP
