FOX Sports college football writer Laken Litman described the on-campus games in the opening round of the College Football Playoff as “fantastic.” Michael Cohen took it one step further, referring to home-field advantage as “an incredible jolt to the postseason format.” And finally, RJ Young put the cherry on top, calling it “the best home-field advantage in sports.”
Despite all four home teams winning their respective opening-round CFP matchups by double digits, it’s safe to say the new 12-team format is a major improvement over its predecessors. The on-campus games were electric, filled with raucous home crowds cheering on four of the most recognizable brands in college football. It was everything fans wanted when the initial 12-team format was revealed, despite some of the lopsided outcomes.
So now that the first round is in the books and college football fanatics have had a chance to digest the new format, it’s time to offer up some takeaways.
Should the current 12-team format stay as is? Should the way teams are seeded change? And should even more CFP games be played on campus?
FOX Sports college football writers Laken Litman, RJ Young and Michael Cohen are here to answer those questions following the opening round of the CFP.
All four home teams won by double digits in the opening round of the CFP. After seeing four CFP games played on campus for the first time ever, what is your impression of this new format and do you think it’s in the best interest of the sport to keep this format?
RJ Young: The best home-field advantage in sports proved its worth in the first round of the CFP. Each home team won but by an average of 19.25 points. Great teams throughout the regular season played in front of raucous crowds at capacity in four tremendous cathedrals of the sport, at Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas and Ohio State. That these games were blowouts underscores the value home crowds can provide.
Michael Cohen: The addition of on-campus games to this year’s College Football Playoff offered an incredible jolt to the postseason format, which had traded the sport’s wonderful pageantry for the sterility of neutral site venues that kept longstanding bowl organizers in business. Raucous scenes at Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas and Ohio State reinforced just how fun and valuable home-field advantage can be in college football, with each local community experiencing a tremendous financial injection to boot. Even with the lopsided scores that this year’s first-round games produced, there’s little question the on-campus atmospheres were a terrific addition to the competition.
Still, the format was far from perfect and will need to be tweaked in the coming years. There are discussions to be had about the validity of reserving first-round byes for conference champions, even if they aren’t among the four highest-ranked teams overall; about whether the field should be reseeded after each round the way the NFL handles its playoff structure to favor the higher-seeded teams; about shifting quarterfinal and semifinal games to on-campus sites as a reward for schools that earn a bye; and the distribution of automatic bids among conferences, with the Big Ten and SEC inevitably pushing for as many automatic qualifiers as possible. Those conversations are likely to continue in the coming weeks and months, but the overarching theme from this year’s playoff is that an expanded field was far more fun than the original four-team construction — even if it’s not perfect just yet.
Laken Litman: The on-campus games were fantastic. So much so, that it has people talking (even more than before) about the entire CFP being on college campuses up until the national championship game. Basically adopting the NFL playoff model. Sure, the first-round games might have been lopsided for the most part, but the environments were unbeatable. It snowed at Notre Dame, there was a White Out at Penn State that SMU had to prepare extra for, Matthew McConaughey led “Texas Fight” in Austin, and even though there was a good chunk of Tennessee Orange at The Shoe, Ohio State fans got them back by playing “Rocky Top” in the final moments of the game.
For as much as we all love bowl games, those kinds of experiences cannot be duplicated on a neutral site. Simply put, it’s more fun this way and showcases how special and nostalgic college football is.
Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of “Strong Like a Woman,” published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her at @LakenLitman.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him at @RJ_Young.
Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.
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