The 2024-2025 season ended with the Ohio State Buckeyes beating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 34-23 in the National Championship, signifying an end to one of the most hectic seasons of college football ever.
A tense Heisman race, a new playoff structure and a change to how players were paid all led to the historic drama unfolding with this year’s edition of CFB (College Football).
Throughout this season, college football took new twists and turns, evolving while still continuing the famous traditions of the sport. Since the developments of conference switching and NIL(Name, Image, and Likeness) money, CFB has changed forever, with some colleges benefitting and some hurting from the changes.
NIL essentially means that players can be financially compensated for their likelihood and playing time, which gives more power to the players. So, colleges have had to adjust and offer special financial packages to players to have better prospects. Colleges such as Boise State and Oregon succeeded this season due to their NIL recruiting, while universities such as Florida State and Florida have not.
The 12-Team College Football Playoff was also introduced, in order to allow more teams the opportunity to compete for a national championship. Previously, there had been a 4-team playoff, which lowered the amount of teams able to be a competitor.
PEACE Senior Sean McDermott said, “I personally liked it, for me, more teams and matches are more fun, but I didn’t like some of the teams selected.” For added context, a top 25 poll is released each week by the AP which states what teams are the “top ones”. This process of complexity ends with a college football playoff committee deciding amongst themselves which teams are “most deserving” to get into the playoffs.
There was uproar by multiple CFB commentators such as Kirk Herbstreit and others about the teams that entered due to their belief that those teams did not face as hard of competition as others, but most commentators changed their minds as the games revealed themselves as more competitive and challenging.
Additionally, the battle for the Heisman trophy (award for best CFB player) was also intense and close, with two frontrunners; Ashton Jeanty of the Boise State Broncos and Travis Hunter of the Colorado Buffaloes. Eventually, Hunter was able to win the trophy, cementing his legacy.
Millikan’s Functions, Statistics and Trigonometry (FST) teacher Andrew Lewis said, “I think Travis Hunter deserved it. I also think that Jeanty, running back on the Boise State Broncos, did something running backs haven’t done in a long time.”
Both players are entering the NFL draft this year and are expected to be drafted fairly early in the first round.
All in all, this college football season was one to remember, with drama, intrigue, and great game heroics. It’s exciting to think about what may happen in the season to come!
