CFP Recap: Takeaways from the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl
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The College Football Playoff has not disappointed in the 2025-2026 edition of the 12-team format.
Far from ruining the New Year’s Six bowls, the CFP has made them more thrilling than ever. In a New Year’s Eve prime-time showdown in AT&T Stadium, the Cotton Bowl featured the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes versus the last at-large Miami Hurricanes.
They say upsets don’t happen very often in big-time postseason college football, but “The U” sent the defending champs packing with dominant defense and a dagger 4th quarter TD drive to go up 24-14 for the final score.
Then, kicking off New Year’s Day was the Orange Bowl, featuring a pair of 12-1 teams with ultra-dominant defenses and stacked rosters: the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Oregon Ducks. The game went to halftime without any TDs, but as the game wore on, everything went Oregon’s way, and the Ducks, along with UK head coach Will Stein, advanced to the semifinals with a 23-0 shutout.
Big-time football on some of the biggest stages. Here are three takeaways from the Cotton and Orange bowls of the 2025-2026 CFP:
1. Ugly pick-six doomed Buckeyes
Miami punched first with a 7-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter, but OSU marched down the next drive and soon had 1st & 10 at the Miami 16. Instead of a 7-7 tie with a slight Buckeyes edge in momentum, however, everything changed two plays later when Julian Sayin threw a short pass to the edge that got instantly snatched by Keionte Scott and run back 72 yards for a pick-six that turned it 14-0 and kept it that way till halftime. It was very similar to the pick-six that got Alabama back into the game against Oklahoma in the first round. Even though it was only two scores, it felt like the Buckeyes were in a massive hole, and even though they closed the gap to 17-14 in the 4th, they were never able to climb out. In big-time college football games with two highly elite teams, one turnover can be all the difference.
2. Texas Tech completely shut down for first time all season
Through the entire 2025-2026 season, few teams were more dominant than Texas Tech. The Red Raiders never scored fewer than 22 points, blew out nearly all of their competition, and boasted one of the most powerful defenses down the stretch as they gave up 7, 9, 0, and 7 points in their four games before the playoff while scoring 29, 48, 49, and 34.
Somehow, Oregon found a hidden flaw like the Rebel Alliance found in the Death Star, because 60 minutes later, the Ducks were hoisting the trophy with a 23-0 win that was the second-most points Tech had given up all year and by far the fewest points Tech had scored all year. Two picks and two lost fumbles certainly factored into the margin, as well as a missed field goal and going 0 for 3 on 4th down.
It was the prettiest performance for Will Stein’s offense, but his unit did just enough against one of the truly elite defenses in college football.
Now, like the Death Star, the Red Raiders’ season has been blown to millions of tiny little fragments. Such is the way of college football.
3. Picture a 4-team CFP field with Miami and Oregon
Before last year, the national champion could only come from a 4-team bracket. Now the semifinals feature teams that won either one or two other CFP games to arrive at the penultimate stage, and this year, two of them are the Miami Hurricanes and the Oregon Ducks.
Miami is a big brand and traditional power, but the ACC has had very little go right for them ever since the Clemson dynasty ended, and even a 13-0 Florida State couldn’t represent the league two postseasons ago.
Now, they’ve gone from snubbing Notre Dame for the last CFP spot to playing in the Fiesta Bowl for a chance to advance to the title game—and with two regular-season losses as well. No teams in the 4-team format played in the semifinals with two losses, but here are the Hurricanes now, earning it with a road win at Texas A&M and a Cotton Bowl win over the defending champs in scarlet and gray. They’ll now face Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl.
On the other side, Oregon is often dominant, but for years, it couldn’t reach the 4-team field because of the Pac-12 it was playing in. Every year, something would trip them up and keep the entire league out of the bracket. The Big Ten and the 12-team field have been very different for them these past two years, though, and now they’re in the semifinals for the first time since 2014-2015 when they advanced to the title game in the 4-team bracket’s first year. They’ll now face Indiana in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl for a spot in the national title game.
It’s all making for a lot of excitement and turning the 2025-2026 season into one to remember!
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