MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
For the first time in college football history, 12 teams are set to take part in a new playoff at the top level of the sport. The undefeated Oregon Ducks are the top seed. With the new format, they'll face more competition than ever before they reach the title game. So who's in and who's out? NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan is in to tell us more. Good morning, Becky.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: OK, Oregon. What a story. They came to a new conference, the Big Ten. Won the conference championship as the new kids on the block. Do you think they earned the top seed?
SULLIVAN: Oh, without a doubt. They have looked pretty dominant this year. They are the only undefeated team in all of this level of college football. And three of those 13 wins that they have came over other teams in the playoffs, which I think really speaks for itself.
MARTIN: So, who's their big competition? Who else are they up against?
SULLIVAN: I think maybe the two-loss SEC champ Georgia would be thought of as their biggest competitor, but there's a big question mark around their quarterback Carson Beck, who injured his elbow in Saturday's game. He has until New Year's Day to rest up, but that's definitely a question mark. Besides them, lots of familiar names in the mix. You have Texas, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Clemson. But the promise of expanding the playoffs to 12 teams was to give a shot to schools that were traditionally left out.
So this year, those outsiders include Arizona State, who were looking very hot to end the season. You have Southern Methodist playing in a major conference for the first time in many years. And then there's Boise State and their Heisman Hopeful running Ashton Jeanty. He is chasing history. He's a bit over 300 yards shy of this level of college football's all-time single-season rushing record that was set nearly 40 years ago by a little obscure guy named Barry Sanders. So Boise State coming in.
MARTIN: Yeah, just some no-name guy. Yep. Right?
SULLIVAN: (Laughter) Yeah. If they can win at least one game, then Jeanty has a good shot at breaking that record.
MARTIN: OK, so maybe this is a dumb question, Becky, but you know I'm going to ask. Was there any controversy about who to include?
SULLIVAN: Oh. You know it. Besides marching bands and mascots, Michel, there is nothing more traditional in college football than controversy over who has the chance to be named champion. So for a long time, for a century, almost basically, you just debated who was named champion. That became a two-team single-game playoff. About a decade ago, that became the four-team format we had up until this season. The debates never stopped. This year, there were questions about who should get the 12th and final spot.
So Southern Methodist, with this up-and-comer, only lost two very close games to two strong teams, including in a conference championship game this past weekend. But they didn't play an especially strong schedule. On the other hand, you had Alabama, a classic powerhouse. Lost three games to more middling teams. Didn't even make their conference title game, but they played a way tougher schedule overall. The playoff committee picked SMU. There are some vociferous protests about that, and honestly, it may change the way teams schedule - make their schedules going forward.
MARTIN: Wow. OK, so how big of a deal is the move to a 12-team playoff?
SULLIVAN: I mean, it's huge. It's part of just this set of, like, cataclysmic changes that are completely transforming college football. If you had put a college football fan in a time capsule 10 years ago and dug them up today, they would struggle to understand basically any word that has been spoken between you and me these last few minutes. Oregon winning the Big Ten. Arizona winning the Big 12. Texas and Southern Methodist came within a field goal a piece of winning the SEC and ACC. Not to mention these, like, name, image and likeness deals that have brought an incredible amount of compensation to the players, and even more seed changes are coming next year by the way of a major legal settlement that will pave the way for schools to pay athletes directly.
MARTIN: So when does this first 12-team playoff get started?
SULLIVAN: Well, the first round between the lower eight seeds is in a couple of weekends. A cool thing is that those games will be hosted on campus, which is a new thing for the postseason, subsequent round starting New Year's Eve and into January.
MARTIN: Plenty of time for us to plan our snacks. All right, that's NPR's...
SULLIVAN: Exactly.
MARTIN: ...Becky Sullivan. Becky, thank you.
SULLIVAN: You're so welcome.
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