Takeaways from the first round of the College Football Playoff

The first round of the College Football Playoff is in the books after the expanded playoff brought games to campuses for the first time, an incredible display of the best parts of college football – even if the games weren’t particularly close.

The first round of the College Football Playoff is in the books after the expanded playoff brought games to campuses for the first time, an incredible display of the best parts of college football – even if the games weren’t particularly close. Notre Dame kicked off the round on Friday night with a 27-17 pounding of Indiana that wasn’t nearly as close as the scoreboard made it seem. After that midday Saturday, it was Penn State’s turn to hand out a drubbing with a 38-10 victory over Southern Methodist University. Texas got a brief scare from Clemson in the afternoon game on Saturday, but eventually pulled away for a 38-24 victory. And in the nightcap, Ohio State thumped Tennessee 42-17. The results put the quarterfinal matchups in stone: The Fighting Irish now go on to play Georgia on New Year’s Day in the Sugar Bowl, Penn State will play Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Eve, Texas plays Arizona State in the Peach Bowl on New Year’s Day and Ohio State plays Oregon on New Year’s Day in the Rose Bowl. Here are six takeaways from the opening round of the College Football Playoff. Indiana and SMU made the field at the expense of brand name schools like Ole Miss, Alabama and South Carolina. Their resumes were simply too much for the committee to overlook – Indiana was 11-1, SMU was 11-2 after losing the ACC championship game. There was no way that the committee could put three loss teams ahead of those two into the final field of 12. But the Hoosiers and Mustangs surely did not make the committee’s situation any easier by their dismal showings against Notre Dame and Penn State.