PASADENA — Two minutes into the fourth quarter, the Rose Bowl sound system played “Shout,” the famous song played at every Oregon home game. Tens of hundreds of green-clad fans sang in unison because the shadows lengthened and the sun set behind the San Gabriels. But on the Oregon sideline, players stood motionless or huddled silently with coaches.

Across the sector, the scene was very different: Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau, Ohio State's star defenders, immediately recognized “Shout” and started dancing to the music.

Ohio State had done all the things else for the Ducks over the course of a remarkable Wednesday afternoon. Why not adopt their beloved tradition too?

And so the team not playing for the Big Ten title defeated the conference champions with a 41-21 victory within the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff that was much more lopsided than even the rating would suggest.

The result put eighth-seeded Ohio State in a matchup with Texas next week, eliminated the top-seeded Ducks and undoubtedly left an interested viewer with mixed feelings.

According to a conference spokesman, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti was present at the sport but was not available for interviews. So we’ve to guess his response.

In one respect, Petitti is probably going pleased: Penn State will advance to the semifinals alongside Ohio State after a decisive win over Boise State within the Fiesta Bowl on Tuesday.

But Petitti left the Rose Bowl perhaps frustrated that his conference couldn't get a 3rd team to the semifinals — because Oregon and Ohio State needed to play one another due to a flawed CFP process that prioritizes conference championships.

If the CFP selection committee had seeded the 12 teams based on the ultimate rankings, the Ducks and Buckeyes wouldn’t have played an elimination game within the quarterfinals.

Ohio State would have been a No. 6 seed, not a No. 8 seed, and faced Texas within the quarterfinals. And as a No. 1 seed, Oregon would have needed to play the winner of the sport with Nos. 8-9, Boise State or Indiana.

Both the Buckeyes and Ducks could have advanced to the semifinals, together with Penn State, which might have been a No. 4 seed in a bunch based on the rankings.

Petitti and the opposite conference commissioners who make up the CFP Management Committee are scheduled to satisfy in Atlanta in three weeks.

It's obvious that Petitti will push for the format change. Over the years, the Big Ten's top teams are more likely to be ranked higher than the ACC, Big 12 and Group of Five champions.

Our guess: SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey will agree with Petitti, perhaps in return for Petitti's support on whatever issue Sankey cares about most.

To make format changes in time for next season, the Big Ten and SEC will need unanimous support from the opposite FBS conferences (and Notre Dame).

But that won’t be the case for the 2026 postseason. There isn’t any agreed format. There isn’t any unanimity requirement. The Big Ten and SEC can impose whatever changes they need — with ESPN’s blessing, after all.

At the highest of the list may very well be eliminating the seed reference given to conference champions.

More reactions from the Rose Bowl:

– The Ducks looked slower and more out of sync than they’ve all season – and never within the slightest. The 24-day break clearly had an impact on their performance.

This has been the case with quite a few playoff teams up to now. This will not be an Oregon-specific problem. Layoff causes rust and heavy legs.

The difference this time: Oregon's opponent didn't have a 24-day break. The Buckeyes played within the opening round of the CFP 11 days ago.

In other words, the No. 1 overall seed was at a competitive drawback in comparison with the No. 8 seed.

That too has to alter.

(Notable: The higher-seeded quarterfinalists with weeks off, Oregon, Boise State and Arizona State, were outscored 42-3 in the primary quarter by lower-seeded opponents who played 10 or 11 days ago.)

— The results of Oregon's last two playoff games are as follows:

Ohio State 42, Ducks 20 (2014 championship)

Ohio State 41, Ducks 21 (2024 Quarterfinals)

The opponent is, after all, a part of the issue – Ohio State is as talented as any team within the country on an annual basis. But the top game stays unchanged: The Ducks proceed to pursue a national championship for 86-year-old benefactor Phil Knight.

Was 2024 their best likelihood?

Nope.

This team was an impressive combination of talent, experience, coaching and circumstances. The Ducks were higher prepared for all times within the Big Ten than Washington and USC and benefited from Michigan's poor season.

But it's entirely possible that a rather weaker regular season results in a more successful postseason – that tweaks to the CFP format and no 24 days off and never fidgeting with the pressure of an undefeated season result in an unexpected run through the postseason.

Playoff expansion has created a tournament environment much like March Madness, where momentum comes from nowhere and momentum is fluid.

Remember, the yr the Ducks reached the Final Four, they were a No. 3 seed.

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Originally published: January 1, 2025 at 7:18 pm PST

BOISE, Idaho – Merle and Ruth Baptiste have been Boise State season ticket holders since 1974, when the Broncos competed in Division II. They were there when this system won a Division I-AA national championship in 1980, hosted its first bowl game, the Humanitarian Bowl, in 1999 and won its first BCS bowl in 2006.

On Friday night at cool Albertson's Stadium, they experienced a brand new first: Boise State qualified for a likelihood to play for the national championship of major college football. The Broncos' 21-7 victory over UNLV clinches No. 10 Boise State (12-1) an automatic spot in the primary 12 College Football Playoffs.

“It’s about time,” Merle said. “We should have been playing for a (national) championship long before, but we weren’t respected by the big schools.”

The importance of this moment can’t be overstated, not just for Boise State, but for faculty football as well. It's a sport that has all the time functioned as a rustic club, offering lifetime membership to Notre Dame or Alabama while handing out visitor passes to Tulane or Western Michigan. Back within the BCS days, the powers that be were hauled before Congress and threatened with an antitrust audit for thus openly excluding half of the game from their party.

A generation later, when the commissioners created the brand new 12-team playoff teams, they finally secured a spot for the little guy. It's fitting that the primary Group of 5 program to profit was certainly one of its original giant killers.

“We would have loved it if there had been a playoff — we felt like we could have played with anyone,” said Jared Zabransky, quarterback of Boise State's undefeated 2006 Fiesta Bowl team must have been for a very long time. I’m just grateful that these kids have the chance now.”

These kids, led by Heisman hopeful Ashton Jeanty, won their second straight Mountain West championship on Friday, with Jeanty rushing for a 75-yard touchdown and recording his sixth 200-yard game of the season (209). Afterwards, seemingly all 36,663 fans within the sold-out Albertson's Stadium streamed onto the blue turf.

“Hope is powerful,” Boise State athletic director Jeremiah Dickey said. “With college football fans, you’ve seen it all year – when you give more opportunities, it really lights a fire.”

Boise State fans were so excited that they tore down the goal post and threw it into the nearby Boise River. They were a part of history. Never before had a Group 5 team left the sphere knowing they were headed to the playoffs. Even undefeated Cincinnati in 2021 couldn't ensure until the committee made its final verdict.

“It’s a great opportunity for all schools,” Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said. “As a competitor, you just want to have a chance.”

Zabransky and Ian Johnson never had a likelihood to play for a national championship, despite ending because the only undefeated team within the country that season. Neither did Kellen Moore and Doug Martin with their very own 14-0 team three years later. Dan Hawkins coached a 2004 Boise team that went undefeated within the regular season and landed within the Liberty Bowl. The same thing happened in 2008 for an undefeated Chris Petersen team that reached the Poinsettia Bowl.

Danielson and Jeanty are the most recent in an extended line of coaches and players who’ve spearheaded Boise State's decades-long evolution from junior college to lower-level NCAA school and from FBS to national power. In the early 2010s, the Broncos commonly beat the likes of Georgia, Oklahoma, Oregon and Virginia Tech. They reached three Fiesta Bowls and won all three. But they never got the decision to be in an influence conference like BCS busters Utah and TCU.

Then this system stagnated for a couple of decade, still commonly winning 10 or 11 games a 12 months and just a few Mountain West championships, but never the type of breakout season on the national level like UCF in 2017 and 2018 or Cincinnati in 2020 and 21. Both, in addition to Houston, UCF and SMU were also called up.

Just 13 months ago, Boise State was 5-5 and in peril of its first losing season since 1997 when Dickey made the surprise decision to fireplace third-year coach Andy Avalos, a former Broncos linebacker whose team played 10 games a 12 months had won earlier. Dickey promoted then-35-year-old defensive coordinator Danielson regardless that he had every intention of creating an outdoor hire after the season.

Until Danielson's team won the following three games, reached the Mountain West Championship Game and upset UNLV, which earned Danielson the full-time job.

With Jeanty returning after a 1,347-yard season, Boise was picked to win the conference within the preseason but was hardly considered a number one candidate to make the CFP. The Broncos didn't appear within the AP poll for the primary time until Sept. 22, just a few weeks after they faced Eugene and beat then-seventh-ranked Oregon. By that time, Jeanty, who ran for 267 yards and 6 touchdowns in his team's opener at Georgia Southern, had been generating early Heisman buzz. But there was actually little likelihood that a Group of 5 running back would actually make it to New York.

Three months later, Jeanty just finished an everyday season with more rushing yards – 2,497 – than any player in history not named Barry Sanders. The only query now is whether or not it was enough to beat Colorado two-way sensation Travis Hunter for the trophy.

“He shows week in and week out that he’s the best football player in the country,” Danielson said, “and I don’t think he’s anywhere near that great.”

Jeanty is reason enough for Power 4 playoff teams to be cautious about picking Boise State as an opponent. Unless the committee makes a surprise move on Sunday, the Broncos will likely finish in the highest 4 and receive a bye to the quarterfinals. Geographically, they’d likely be placed within the Fiesta Bowl on December thirty first. If Clemson upsets SMU within the ACC Championship, Boise could even move as much as the No. 3 seed.

If they’re the No. 4 seed, it could arrange an intriguing matchup with the No. 5 seed, which either loses the Big Ten or SEC championship games or goes 11-1 against Notre Dame.

“Good luck to everyone who … thinks they’re going to win the game (against Boise State),” UNLV coach Barry Odom said. “I think they are one of the best teams in college football right now and I think they will do a great job representing this conference. They’re built to run.”

You've done it before. Boise wasn't nearly as prestigious a program because it is today when Zabransky handed off to Johnson within the famous Statue of Liberty game to defeat a top team led by Bob Stoops of Oklahoma. The top-10 Virginia Tech team that the Broncos defeated within the 2010 season opener won the ACC that season. The Georgia team they demolished within the 2011 season opener won 10 games and the SEC East.

But victory within the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff could be Boise State's biggest accomplishment yet – the football equivalent of the early Gonzaga NCAA Tournament teams that helped turn this program right into a new-age Blues blood.

“This team wanted to leave a legacy where your actions will have a resounding impact for years to come,” Danielson said. “Standing on the podium and seeing Bronco Nation take the field are moments that can change everything.”

For Boise State and for faculty football.