Now that the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff is down to four teams remaining — the size of the field the previous 10 seasons — things really don't look that much different. The final quartet includes two teams from the Big Ten,

Ohio State ’s Ryan Day, Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, Notre Dame ’s Marcus Freeman and Penn State ’s James Franklin are the final four. None has won a national championship as a head coach, making this season the third out of the last four in which the title will go to a head coach who has never won one.

College football will have consecutive national champions from outside the Sun Belt region for the first time in three decades if Ohio State beats Texas in a playoff semifinal this week.

Former ESPN analyst David Pollack recently revealed his prediction for the Cotton Bowl game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Texas Longhorns. Ohio State enters the game as a 5.5-point favorite, per ESPN BET .

College football's newfound parity has been a major talking point through the 2024 season. For a multitude of perfectly sensible reasons, the good teams aren't as good at the power conference level, and some of the bad teams aren't as bad.

Ohio State and Texas have drawn each other as semifinal opponents in the College Football Playoff. This is the fourth matchup between the blue bloods.

Saturday's game was a unquestioned pivot point for No. 4 Ohio State's season. A loss to Oregon and a shaky performance against Nebraska last week left the Buckeyes with an increasing number of skeptics.

Will the Texas football season end at the hands of Ohio State in the CFP? Here's the case for a Buckeyes win in the Cotton Bowl.