This year’s college football bowl season has included the first-ever college football playoff, and saw the underdog Ohio State Buckeyes knock off Marcus Mariota and the Oregon Ducks. The long-awaited playoff system was finally launched this year which saw a field of four teams. The two semi-final sights were at the Rose Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl. The winners would play each other at AT&T Stadium in Dallas for the National Championship.

The field was selected by the College Football Playoff Committee in late December, and included; SEC Champion Alabama, PAC 12 Champion Oregon, last year’s National Champion and this year’s ACC Champion Florida State, and finally Big 10 Champion Ohio State. With a very small playing field, there was much controversy when the final four were selected. TCU and Baylor, who both shared the Big 12 title, were left out of the playoff, finishing number 5 and 6. This caused an uproar in the college football world because on the second-to-last weekend of the regular season, TCU was ranked No. 3 nationally. On the last weekend, TCU was dropped to No. 6 after blowing out Iowa State, 55-3. Ohio State was selected as the fourth and final team to participate in the playoff following it’s 59-0 massacre of Wisconsin in the Big 10 Championship game. The main explanation for the Final Four being selected ahead of Baylor and TCU was all four teams won their conference championship game. The Big 12 currently doesn’t have a conference championship, and this is why Baylor and TCU shared the Big 12 title. This will be a factor that must change in the future in order for the Big 12 to send a representative to the College Football Playoff.

This year, the playoff not only saw classic programs fighting it out for the National Title, but also an array of talent. Alabama was lead by veteran quarterback Blake Sims, and Heisman candidate receiver Amari Cooper. The high-powered Oregon offense was lead by the reigning Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota. Undefeated Florida State was led by last year’s Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston. Finally, Ohio State’s injury problem at quarterback saw third-string QB Cardale Jones take over the Buckeye’s offense. St. Louis-native Ezekiel Elliott was the Buck’s most dangerous player, and went on to light up the College Football Playoffs.

The heavily favored Alabama team was defeated in the first semi-final at the Sugar Bowl by big underdogs, Ohio State. The other semi-final at the Rose Bowl saw last year’s national champions, Florida State, lose to Oregon’s high powered offense. Oregon met Ohio State in the National Championship game at AT&T Stadium in a game that didn’t disappoint.  Ohio State was written off when QB J.T. Barrett got hurt in November, but they never flinched in their final three games of their season. In the championship game every time the Buckeyes looked done, they instead kept getting better. And in the new era of college football, that was enough to earn a chance to win a championship. They took advantage of an opportunity they never would have had in the BCS, shrugging off questions about whether they belonged among college football’s final four. Cardale Jones, Ezekiel Elliott and the Buckeyes won the first College Football Playoff National Championship, upsetting Marcus Mariota and Oregon, 42-20, on Monday night.

Even though the first college football playoff proved to be successful when the underdog Ohio State upset Alabama and Oregon, there is still a problem that needs a solution. Many ESPN analysts and college football experts have been calling for an expansion to an eight-team playoff. An eight-team playoff would have been an almost perfect fit for this year’s playoff. After TCU was snubbed from the final four, the Horned Frogs went on to defeat Ole Miss, 42-3, in the Peach Bowl. An underrated Michigan State team beat another team snubbed of the playoff, Baylor in the Cotton Bowl. A previous No. 1 ranked Mississippi State with star QB, Dak Prescott, faced Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl. The Yellow Jackets had an impressive victory over Prescott and the Bulldogs.

The first college football playoff was a success, however an expansion is needed and junior Carter Sawyer agrees with this statement.

“I really liked the playoff, but I definitely think more teams should be included in the playoff. This will create more excitement and less controversy when the field is announced,” said Sawyer.

Junior Jc Lake believes that the playoff should remain at only four teams now, which will make big conferences less-dominate, like the SEC.

“The playoff should stay at four teams because it really holds the suspense of who gets in, and who doesn’t. With a field of only four teams, I think that major conferences will dominate less because it isn’t just a one and two seed matchup. The SEC has dominated over the last decade, but with four seeds it will really make the SEC have to earn it. It’s a given that the SEC won’t dominate as much anymore and people shouldn’t expect that conference to win with the playoff,” said Lake.

For all the disappointed fans in the BCS era of college football, the new college football playoff has shown that it’s absolutely necessary when 4-seed Ohio State knocked off both Alabama and Oregon. Even though expansion arguments still exist in regard to the playoff, it will be interesting to see how the new era of college football evolves.