New year, new era of college football.

Here are the four teams that have advanced to the College Football Playoff semifinals:

It’s the wildest final four the sport has ever seen, and the first time we’ve gotten this far without Ohio State or Alabama since the College Football Playoff started in 2014. None of these teams have won a national championship since Miami in 2001; Indiana and Oregon have never won the whole thing. None of these teams were ranked in the Top 5 of the preseason AP Poll, and only Indiana received a bye into the quarterfinals.

With NIL, loosened transfer restrictions, the House settlement, and Playoff expansion, we got, like, four massive sport-changing shifts in a few years. Mix ‘em all together, throw ‘em in a pot, set it on high for 25-30 minutes, and you get something tasty like a potential Indiana-Miami national championship game.

– Rodger Sherman

Indiana 38, Alabama 3.

Gonna say that a couple more times.

INDIANA: 38.

ALABAMA: 3.

The Indiana Hoosiers played the Alabama Crimson Tide and scored 38 American football points. That’s five touchdowns and a field goal. Alabama scored three.

It’s the eighth-biggest loss in Alabama history, and the biggest since a 42-6 loss to Arkansas in 1998. And it came in the Rose Bowl. Against Indiana.

And it wasn’t a fluke, either. Indiana comfortably doubled up Alabama’s yardage (407 to 193) and was more than twice as efficient (7.6 yards per play vs. 3.4 yards per play.) Fernando Mendoza had more passing touchdowns (three) than incompletions (two.) Alabama had just 23 rushing yards on 17 attempts.

In some ways, the result is not surprising at all. The Hoosiers were a 7-point favorite, and statistical models said that was taking them lightly. They were undefeated, with wins over two of the Top 5 teams in the playoff field, while Alabama got smoked in the SEC Championship Game a few weeks ago. Indiana had the Heisman winner; Alabama didn’t have any of the Top 10 vote getters. Indiana was a remarkably consistent team with no obvious weaknesses; Alabama’s most glaring flaw has been glaringly obvious all season (they can’t run the dang ball!)

BUT STILL.

I’ve been an Indiana believer all season (check the date on the newsletter entitled “Indiana can win the whole damn thing.”) But even I couldn’t shake that creeping feeling when I saw "Alabama vs. Indiana.” The matchup was between the team with the most championships in college football history and the team that entered the season with the most losses in college football history. I had a hard time keeping everything I knew about these two programs historically from overriding everything I knew about these two specific teams in 2026.

But the Rose Bowl proved beyond all doubt that thinking in terms of history is outdated. It’s 2026. (I initially typed “It’s 2025.” Forgot what day they play the Rose Bowl.) It’s foolish to base our college football opinions on our memories of rosters from 10 or 20 years ago. Honestly, it’s pretty foolish to base our college football opinions on last year.

This Hoosier team and this Rose Bowl will serve as the sign that the tide has turned in college football. (And so have the Tide.)

Congratulations to HOMEFIELD APPAREL, who made killer Indiana merch when the Hoosiers were NOT Rose Bowl champions, and are now making even better Indiana gear now that they are. I’m honestly considering getting some Indiana Rose Bowl merch just to feel like I’m part of the team. The shirts and sweaters are really pretty and will show everybody I was there from the beginning when Indiana wins its fifth-straight natty.

Ole Miss 39, Georgia 34

Ohio State may be eliminated, but there’s still one guy who can win back-to-back national championships: Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss.

Chambliss won last year’s Division II championship as the starting quarterback for Ferris State. Now he’s the starter for Ole Miss. But he’s not just going out there and game-managing while his more talented teammates get the job done. He IS the danger! This was one of the best QB performances in College Football Playoff history. (And the best performance by a Trinidad since the final game of 2018 World Cup qualifying.)

Him-idad completed his first 12 passes of the second half to help Ole Miss rally back from a nine-point halftime deficit. And they weren’t checkdowns! This was playmaking on a high degree of difficulty. The third-quarter stretch when Chambliss made back-to-back-to-back throws on the run under intense pressure was as phenomenal as anything I’ve seen from any QB all season long. When he saw Georgia blitzing and started running backwards, I thought, “Oh man, this worked against DII talent, but these Dawgs are gonna catch him.” And then … they didn’t.

Look at the list of players with more passing yards in a Playoff game than Chambliss had last night: They’re all first-round NFL Draft picks, except Stetson Bennett, who won two national championships.

And look at the quarterbacks still standing. We’ve got the Heisman winner in Fernando Mendoza, a 5-star recruit in Dante Moore, the most expensive transfer QB (allegedly) in Carson Beck … and this guy from Division II. And he might be more directly responsible for his team’s success than any of the other three.

Normally, I would give credit to the coaching staff … BUT OLE MISS’ HEAD COACH, A GUY FAMOUS FOR QB DEVELOPMENT, LITERALLY LEFT THE TEAM LAST MONTH INSTEAD OF COACHING HIS TEAM THROUGH THE PLAYOFF. I guess the credit goes to Ole Miss QB coach Joe Judge, the guy who is not famous for QB development and seemingly held back Daniel Jones during his stint as head coach of the New York Giants. I am flabbergasted.

I wrote about Chambliss in September, mostly from a “wow, that’s neat!” perspective. I wrote about the rarity of Division II transfers into the top tier of the sport, and how Chambliss got offered not by Notre Dame, but by Notre Dame College, the Division II program that shut down in 2024. (Chambliss was also offered by Northwestern … Ohio. Tough break for me.)

But Chambliss has escaped the “cute story!” arc and entered the realm of legend. This guy is winning the highest-pressure games in college football. He could be playing in the NFL at this time next year. And in a few weeks, he might be lifting the national championship trophy. Trinidad is about Tobago-ing down in college football history.

Miami 24, Ohio State 14

Wanna watch a guy with a last name pronounced “bane” blow up a football game? You could watch The Dark Knight Rises, or you could watch a replay of the Orange Bowl, where Miami’s Rueben Bain Jr. and his band of Arkham escapees on the defensive line knocked out the defending champs from the Playoff.

The play of the day was Keionte Scott’s pick-six on an Ohio State screen pass. Miami knew exactly what Ohio State was going to do:

Let’s start at the snap. Ohio State, oddly, decided to use a silent snap count in a neutral site game. The trigger for the center to snap the ball was the left guard physically tapping the center. That signal is very easy for defenses to decipher and time so that they can jump the snap. From the SkyCast angle (shoutout to ESPN for broadcasting this) you can see Bain read the snap and get a jump on the offense. (You can also hear somebody in the crowd yelling “GOOD GET-OFF, BAIN!” — a true ball-knower.)

The play is a run-pass option, and Ohio State is intentionally leaving Bain unblocked. Honestly not a terrible strategy for a player as good as Bain — if you can’t block him, take him out with a read. But Bain is in the backfield so fast that he contributes to Julian Sayin’s failure to notice Scott breaking on the ball.

And credit to Scott for making an awesome play here. Jumping a screen is risky compared to playing contain. If he hadn’t broken up the pass, OSU would have had the numbers on the outside for a huge gain, if not a touchdown. But Scott said he recognized the play from film and “shot my shot.”

Ohio State also helped him make that decision. Look at the formation. Jeremiah Smith, the best receiver in college football, is on the line of scrimmage and covered by the receiver at the top of the formation. This makes him ineligible to catch a pass. Ohio State made the best receiver in college football ineligible on the play. Scott knew at the snap that he didn’t have to worry about Smith as a receiver. Instead, he could just focus on getting around his block.

Of note is that Ohio State changed offensive playcallers before the game. When offensive coordinator Brian Hartline accepted the head coaching job at South Florida, he stayed on OSU’s staff for the Playoff, but head coach Ryan Day took over playcalling duties. Perhaps not coincidentally, Ohio State came out against Miami with a disjointed offense that made catastrophic mistakes.

(Surely, the Buckeyes wish they had last year’s offensive coordinator, Chip Kelly. BUT HE IS NOW THE OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR FOR THE NORTHWESTERN WILDCATS.)

Quick calendar update — I should be doing this in every newsletter tbh. The College Football Playoff semis are:

🎉 Fiesta Bowl: Miami vs. Ole Miss, Thursday, Jan. 8, 7:30 p.m. ET

🍑 Peach Bowl, Indiana vs. Oregon: Friday, Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m. ET

That means that after Monday’s Sports! newsletter covering the Week 18 NFL games, you’ll be getting a Sports! college football newsletter Saturday, Jan. 10.

(And since some people have asked … yes, you will be getting A LOT of Olympic newsletters in February.)

Some other things to keep an eye on:

🎸 FCS Championship game, Montana State vs. Illinois State, Monday, Jan. 5, 7:30 p.m. ET: Montana State is the heavy favorite, while Illinois State is looking to complete what’s already the greatest underdog run in the history of the FCS postseason, with back-to-back-to-back-to-back road wins in Louisiana, California, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, this is a neutral site game rather than a road game, so the Redbirds will probably lose.

3️⃣ Division III Championship game, North Central vs. UW-River Falls, Sunday, Jan. 4, 8 p.m. ET: NC is looking for their fourth NC in seven years, while River Falls had a losing record every year from 2001 to 2019 before turning its program around.

As mentioned earlier, Indiana began the season as the losingest team in college football history, but they’re not anymore. THE FULL STORY OF THE RACE TO BE THE LOSINGEST TEAM IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL HISTORY (and who took over for Indiana.)

Guess what: I’m gonna keep bumping this video as long as Indiana keeps playing well!