It is a blue blood Final Four in the College Football Playoff semifinals. The teams left standing -- 6-seed Penn State, 7-seed Notre Dame, 8-seed Ohio State and 5-seed Texas -- ha

That pair, and others like it, became part of notable trend in the 2024-25 bowl season: 21 of the 30 non-Playoff bowls that aired on an ESPN network through Jan. 2 saw year-over-year viewership increases, the majority of them by 20 percent or more.

It took most of the season, but two games into the newly-extended College Football Playoff, the Ohio State Buckeyes look like the team everyone thought they should be this season. The Buckeyes have what is believed to be the most expensive roster in all of football;