Home field advantage proved to be the defining factor of the first College Football Playoff games held on campus.
Amid a quartet of rowdy sellout crowds to kick off the CFP’s expanded, 12-team era home teams went 4–0. Each host was heavily favored heading into the weekend, and the favorites dominated; every game ended with a double-digit victory for the home school.
Two of the losing schools, in particular, fueled further criticism of how the CFP selection committee put together the first 12-team bracket. SMU, with an 11-2 record, got the final Playoff bid over Alabama even after losing to Clemson in the ACC championship game. Indiana’s strength of schedule had been questioned by many experts, particularly after the Hoosiers lost 38–15 at Ohio State in November.
With Alabama and their SEC counterparts Ole Miss and South Carolina (all 9–3 during the regular season) watching from home this weekend, SEC supporters have already used the lopsided games to argue that those schools would have fared better.
But one new element was an unequivocal success: despite campuses being largely closed for the holidays, nearly 400,000 fans attended the debut first-round games, according to attendance numbers announced over the weekend:
- Tennessee at Ohio State: Saturday’s nightcap featured 102,819 fans at Ohio Stadium as the Buckeyes advanced with a decisive 42–17 win.
- Clemson at Texas: A crowd of 101,150 watched at Texas Memorial Stadium, as the Longhorns won the first-ever meeting of the two football programs 38–24.
- SMU at Penn State: A classic white-out game packed 106,013 into Beaver Stadium, helping Penn State to the largest margin of victory in the first round, 38–10.
- Indiana at Notre Dame: 77,622 fans piled into Notre Dame Stadium for the first Friday home game in school history—and first meeting of the in-state rivals in 33 years—which the Fighting Irish won 27–17.
Away teams were allotted 3,500 tickets for each matchup, and given courtesies including hype videos during introductions. But for the most part, that didn’t lead to opposing teams having a particularly noticeable presence—with one exception.
Tennessee fans showed out in droves for the Volunteers’ matchup at Ohio State in Columbus. ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit called the scene “eerie” minutes before kickoff. “I’ve never seen this many colors of the opposing team in this stadium,” the former Buckeye quarterback said from the broadcast booth. During the first quarter, he estimated that there might be 30,000 or more Tennessee fans in attendance. But Ohio State fended off the visitors, and their traveling fans, to keep home teams perfect in Round 1.
Fans braved sub-freezing temperatures in South Bend, Ind., State College, Penn., and Columbus; while those in Austin were treated to much milder conditions, where it barely dropped into the 50s during gametime. But despite the mostly frigid weather, CFP fans created raucous on-campus playoff atmospheres that several winning coaches praised.
“I’ve never been a part of an environment like that,” Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman said Friday night. “It was special.” Penn State’s James Franklin called the setting “phenomenal” on Saturday afternoon. “The turnout was unbelievable,” he said. And Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian made his feelings clear before he walked off the field in Austin Saturday evening: “This is amazing for college football.”
On TV, viewers may not have even realized that TNT Sports broadcast half the games, marking the first CFP games not on an ESPN platform. SMU–Penn State and Clemson-Texas—simulcast on TNT, TBS, TruTV, and Max as part of a sublicensing deal with Disney—looked virtually the same as Indiana–Notre Dame and Tennessee–Ohio State on ABC and ESPN. The scorebugs were identical outside of featuring small TNT Sports and ESPN logos on those respective channels.
The TNT Sports games were still produced by ESPN and featured ESPN on-air talent in the booth, sidelines, and halftime and post-game shows. TNT did have its own pregame coverage on Saturday morning.
CFP broadcasts on TNT Sports also had the tough task of going head-to-head against two juicy NFL matchups. The Chiefs’ 27–19 victory over the Texans on NBC played out while Penn State routed SMU, and the Ravens’ 34–17 win over the Steelers on Fox coincided with Texas beating Clemson.
Off the field, ESPN successfully pulled off its first back-to-back editions of College GameDay, which both took place in the span of 20 hours—Friday afternoon in South Bend, and then roughly 250 miles away Saturday morning in Columbus. Nobody could cash in on Pat McAfee’s kicking contest, despite the media star upping the ante and offering $1 million at Notre Dame and $500,000 at Ohio State.
Next year, TNT Sports will get some first-round and quarterfinal games, but this year, ESPN has the remainder of CFP games, which are now set to play out across college football’s traditional New Year’s Six bowl games:
- Fiesta Bowl, Dec. 31: Penn State–Boise State
- Peach Bowl, Jan. 1: Texas–Arizona State
- Rose Bowl, Jan. 1: Oregon–Ohio State
- Sugar Bowl, Jan. 1: Notre Dame–Georgia
The CFP semifinals will play out at the Orange Bowl Jan. 9 and Cotton Bowl Jan. 10, before concluding at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Jan. 20.
