The 12 teams playing in the college football playoff are set. We discuss the highlights, lowlights and surprises.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
College football playoff is set, and everyone is happy about it. No drama or controversy at all. Just kidding. That is absolutely not the case. This, as a reminder, is only the second year of the current 12-team playoff format, but yet again, it has come under fire over which schools got in and which were left out. NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan joins me now. Becky, I thought expanding the 12 was going to solve all these problems. What is happening?
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Good one.
DETROW: (Laughter).
SULLIVAN: You know, it’s actually crazy to think about this now, but last year there was so much more consensus at this time.
DETROW: Right.
SULLIVAN: I thought last year it was, like, there was controversy, but it pales in comparison.
DETROW: What specifically was worse this year? ‘Cause everyone’s mad.
SULLIVAN: Yeah. I mean, last year, it really just came down to the final spot. There was, like, this debate over which of two teams should get that last spot. But I think this year’s just been a mess. I mean, there is one undefeated team at the top. That’s Indiana. Then there are six major conference team who all have one loss. That’s not controversial. But after that, there was this whole just, like, muddy mess of pretty good teams with two or three losses. It was very challenging, it turned out, to rank them, and – no surprise – people are unhappy with the results.
DETROW: Let’s get to the most unhappy people. What teams were left out?
SULLIVAN: Yes. I think the biggest, or certainly the most vocally unhappy, is Notre Dame. They lost their first two games of this season by a combined four points, so very close games, against opponents who were Miami and Texas A&M, both of whom are in the playoff. And so, clearly, those two were good teams. After that, the Fighting Irish didn’t lose again. But the knock against them is that the remaining 10 games on their schedule were pretty easy. And so after they were left out, they have actually since announced that they’re just not going to bother with the postseason bowl game at all. That’s a bit of a surprise. And so their athletic director – excuse me, their athletic director Pete Bevacqua has been on a media tear these past 24 hours since the announcement, and here he is this morning on “The Dan Patrick Show.”
(SOUNDBITE OF RADIO SHOW, “THE DAN PATRICK SHOW”)
PETE BEVACQUA: We take this seriously, as do other universities. And, you know, the rankings can’t just be musical chairs at some, you know, fifth grade birthday party. They have to mean something. And to me, what happened to us really kind of was alarming.
SULLIVAN: Yeah. And also, BYU was left out. That’s an 11-2 team whose two losses both came to the same team, No. 4, Texas Tech. They got smoked in the Big 12 championships on Saturday, and so they were dropped out. But meanwhile, 10-3 Alabama also got smoked in their conference championship game on Saturday, but they got in. I can’t help you understand this, Scott.
DETROW: I mean, I do have to point out there’s, like, an entire media industry devoted to hours of space for people to complain and argue about sports.
SULLIVAN: Yes.
DETROW: Like, I do have to wonder, no matter what, would people be complaining or arguing?
SULLIVAN: Yeah, definitely. I mean, for sure. And I think the selection committee – whether it is for the college football playoff, whether it’s for the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament – that’s a thankless job. There’s always debates over who got in and who got out. I think what doesn’t help is sort of a lack of consistency in their explanations, like we had with Alabama and BYU. The selection committee also said – told ESPN they had gone back to just scrutinize game film of Miami versus Notre Dame in Week 1 to break a tie between those two teams. I just don’t – that doesn’t really scream strong argument to me…
DETROW: Yeah.
SULLIVAN: …To, like, go scrutinize Game 1 or Week 1 game film to try to figure out which team is more deserving of a playoff bid that, theoretically, a full season of games is the criteria for. There are two mid-majors who got in this year. That’s a first for the college football playoff. So shout-out to Tulane and James Madison. I hope they make a splash, but they may end up just being overmatched in their games against Ole Miss and Oregon, respectively. So there’s some complaining about that, too. It’s just kind of a tough one all around.
DETROW: Real quick, did anybody else decide to just skip a ball game?
SULLIVAN: Yeah, a handful of other teams, actually, including 8-4 Iowa State, whose coach just got scooped up by Penn State, and so he was going to leave and leave the team kind of rudderless. Several others also have announced that they are declining them. So that used to be a huge part of this sport. Kind of a surprise that it seems to be taking a backseat these days.
DETROW: Interesting. NPR’s Becky Sullivan, thank you.
SULLIVAN: You’re welcome.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
