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If you’re a true college football fan, you’re going to be dialed into the College Football Playoff for the next month.
There are exceptions. Maybe you’re an Alabama or Miami fan and it still hurts too much to know that your team wasted a golden opportunity. There’s still elite college football that’ll be played the next month.
You might be watching this as a fan of 1 of those 12 teams. Alternatively, you could be watching as a hater who simply cannot stomach Georgia winning its 3rd title in 4 years. Or, of course, you could be watching with a gambling interest.
No matter what your motivation is, you should be watching the College Football Playoff. If you do so, you’re probably going to want at least have some sort of knowledge of what’s going on.
So here’s the 1 Playoff stat for each team that you should know:
No. 1 Oregon
Dillon Gabriel has a QB rating of 188.1 vs. teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25. The only QB with a better mark vs. AP Top 25 finishers in the past 3 years was Stetson Bennett IV, AKA one of the most-clutch quarterbacks of the 21st century. If you’re going to say that Gabriel struggles in big-time games — something that was a fair knock entering the season — don’t ignore that number looking far better in 2024.
No. 2 Georgia
Since the start of the 2017 season, Kirby Smart’s only loss to a non-SEC team was to, ironically enough, Texas in the 2018 Cotton Bowl. In that 8-year stretch, Smart’s record is 35-1 vs. non-SEC teams. Also of note, Georgia wouldn’t face an SEC team until a potential national championship, which would be against Steve Sarkisian or Josh Heupel, who never beat him.
No. 3 Boise State
You know that Ashton Jeanty is in the midst of a historic season, but you might not know that Boise State had 11 more sacks than any Playoff team. The only FBS team with more sacks than the Broncos (51.0) was Ole Miss, which tallied 1 more sack during the regular season. And before you say “that’s just because it was the Mountain West,” note that Boise State was No. 2 in FBS with 16 sacks vs. teams currently in the AP Top 25. (The Broncos sacked Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel 4 times in a 3-point loss in Week 2.)
Only Georgia, which had 21 sacks in 6 games vs. AP Top 25 finishers, had more.
No. 4 Arizona State
At 34 years old, Kenny Dillingham is the youngest FBS coach, though 3 of the 4 coaches with first-round byes are in their 30s. Dillingham, Dan Lanning and Spencer Danielson are all trying to become the first 30-something coach to win a national title since Danny Ford led Clemson to the 1981 national title at age 33.
No. 5 Texas
Texas had 2 games all season in which it allowed a team to pass for 200 yards. Those games — at Michigan and vs. Kentucky — both saw Texas chase the QB1 to the bench. Diego Pavia accounted for half of the TD passes thrown vs. Texas (2 of 4), and the only team in the past 5 years that allowed fewer passing yards/game for a full season was 2021 Washington, which allowed 142.9 passing yards/game compared to Texas’ 143.1.
No. 6 Penn State
James Franklin is 3-19 vs. AP Top 10 teams during his time at Penn State, and the only AP Top 10 win he got outside of the 2016 season came in the 2022 Rose Bowl when Utah quarterback Cam Rising got hurt. The only 2 non-AP Top 10 teams in the field are No. 13 Clemson and Penn State’s first-round opponent, No. 12 SMU.
No. 7 Notre Dame
Since 1999, Notre Dame is 3-23 vs. AP Top 5 teams. Two of those wins came at home vs. Clemson during the 2020s, though one was in 2020 when Clemson was without Trevor Lawrence because of COVID, and the other came in 2022 when Clemson lost 3 games and it finished No. 13 in the final AP Poll. Notre Dame’s other AP Top-5 victory since 1999 came in Week 2 of the 2005 season at No. 3 Michigan, which finished 7-5. Of note, Notre Dame would have to beat 1 or 2 AP Top-5 teams just to reach the national championship.
No. 8 Ohio State
The Buckeyes don’t just have the No. 1 scoring defense; they allowed a 55.2% red-zone scoring percentage, which is the best of any defense since 2010 Boise State. If you want to just include Power Conference teams, Ohio State’s 55.2% would be the best end-of-season mark since the NCAA began tracking red-zone defensive scoring percentage in 2008. Offensive struggles aside, you’re doing something right if you’re forcing opposing teams into empty possessions every other time they’re in the red zone.
No. 9 Tennessee
The Vols haven’t beaten an AP Top 10 team in a true road game since 2006 when they won at No. 10 Georgia. Since that game, they’ve lost 21 consecutive true road games vs. AP Top 10 teams. Of note, Ohio State is the No. 6 team in the AP Poll. A Tennessee takeover in Columbus would be exactly what the doctor ordered for the Vols.
No. 10 Indiana
Let’s move beyond the obvious of Indiana trying to win a postseason game for the first time since 1991. If you’re reading this, you should be aware of that. Let’s instead focus on the fact that Indiana has 3 bowl victories on program history. If this turns into a Cinderella run this postseason, it can match or exceed (!) its entire 1899-2023 history of bowl victories.
No. 11 SMU
The only team in the Playoff field without a positive turnover margin is … SMU. To be fair, the Mustangs don’t have a negative turnover margin, either. They gained 21 turnovers and lost 21, 12 of which were via fumbles. Only 4 FBS teams (South Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana Tech) lost more fumbles than SMU, but in the past 5 games, Rhett Lashlee’s squad only lost 2.
No. 12 Clemson
In Clemson’s 10 wins, it averaged 42.4 points. In Clemson’s 3 losses, it averaged 12.7 points. That’s a 30-point gap. Among teams with multiple wins and multiple losses — that would exclude someone like 11-1 Indiana — that’s the biggest gap in FBS. In those 3 losses, Clemson had 1 touchdown pass and it averaged 5.3 yards/attempt with a QB rating of 105.7. In the first round, Clemson will travel to face a Texas defense that ranks No. 1 in FBS in touchdown passes allowed (4), and it’s also No. 1 against the pass in yards/game and yards/attempt.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
