The College Football Playoff began with a quartet of convincing home victories, but that hasn’t done anything to quell the raging debate about who should have been in the expanded tournament format. 

There was no ambiguity in the opening games of the new, 12-team CFP format as Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, and Notre Dame each prevailed in front of their home fans Friday night and Saturday by an average of more than 19 points. But it was SMU, the final Playoff team in somewhat disputed fashion, that once again became a fulcrum of CFP conversation. 

The Mustangs were blown out by Penn State 38-10 at Beaver Stadium in front of an announced audience of 106,013, quickly leading many prominent analysts and writers to suggest that a three-loss Alabama team should have received that last CFP slot. That sentiment was punctuated by Alabama football GM Courtney Morgan, who tersely tweeted “Disgusting…” as the Nittany Lions jumped out to a 28-0 halftime lead.

SMU coach Rhett Lashlee, however, pushed back on such suggestions.

“We didn’t play well enough to say anything that isn’t going to be written,” Lashlee said. “It’ll be written, ‘Should we be in or did we belong?’ That’s fine. You’re welcome to write it. We didn’t play good today. But this is a quality team. We had a good team. We deserve to be here. We earned the right to be here. I’m disappointed that we didn’t play to the level that validates that.”

Upcoming Games

The CFP quarterfinals will feature the bracket’s top eight seeds in four battles of college football heavyweights. Those games will include:

• Fiesta Bowl, Dec. 31: (6) Penn State–(3) Boise State
• Peach Bowl, Jan. 1: (5) Texas–(4) Arizona State
• Rose Bowl, Jan. 1: (8) Ohio State–(1) Oregon
• Sugar Bowl, Jan. 1: (7) Notre Dame–(2) Georgia

Those games, to all be shown on ESPN after a prior simulcasting deal with TNT, will set up an evening and subsequent full day of college football action that should also go a long way to restoring some college football’s traditional dominance on New Year’s Day. That stature had been largely abandoned in recent years as the prior, four-team CFP format typically involved games on other days in late December and early January. 

“A lot of college coaches talking about this being a four-game season. It’s not,” said Penn State coach James Franklin. “It’s a one-game season. … How you value those reps, how you prepare, will give you an opportunity to play again. We’re in a one-game season, and we just extended our season one more game.”

Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been no fan of an unusually compressed stretch of three games in 11 days. But Mahomes continues to grit it out while battling an ankle injury, benefiting the two-time defending Super Bowl champions that are closing in another top seed in the AFC playoffs, as well as multiple NFL rights holders. 

Soon after complaining that the tight turnarounds on games—designed to enable a special Christmas Day doubleheader on Netflix—was “not great for the body,” the two-time league MVP led Kansas City to a 27-19 over Houston on Saturday, leaving the 14-1 Chiefs on the verge on the top overall seed in the playoffs. One more Chiefs victory or a loss or tie by the Bills would clinch a postseason bye and home-field advantage as the Mahomes-led squad seeks a third-straight title that would be unprecedented in the NFL’s Super Bowl era. 

“I ask a lot from the guys around me,” Mahomes said. “I feel like if I’m going to ask them to play through pain and nicks and bruises, I’ve got to do it as well. That’s something that I pride myself on, being out there with my guys.”

Mahomes threw for 260 yards and one score while rushing for another in what coach Andy Reid described as the team’s most comprehensive game of the year. Just three of the Chiefs’ 14 wins this season have been by at least 10 points.

Still, the presence of Mahomes was good news for NBC, which showed the game in an unusual Saturday night broadcast. It’s also a big relief for Netflix, which continues to harbor high expectations for its holiday showcase, which will begin with the Chiefs at the Steelers on Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET.

But while the star quarterback is expected to be there, there are several other pressing injury questions for the Chiefs with the short turnaround, as the statuses of defensive tackle Chris Jones, offensive tackle Jawaan Taylor, and linebacker Jack Cochrane are uncertain for the Steelers game.

“You’re not going to feel great,” Mahomes said of the upcoming game in Pittsburgh. “That’s just kind of what it is. You don’t make excuses in this league. … It’ll be rocking playing on Christmas, so everybody’s going to be watching.”

No Big Wait for Numbers

There will not be an extended wait to have a more specific sense of what Mahomes means by “everybody.”

Netflix plans to release initial audience figures for that game, as well as a subsequent one that day between the Ravens and Texans, by the early evening on Dec. 26. The streaming giant has already contracted to work with Nielsen on viewership measurement, and that should provide a much more reliable barometer on the game than the highly debated internal figures released for last month’s Jake Paul-Mike Tyson boxing match. 

The company claims it now has a better handle on the buffering issues that marred that event.