Is it rematch season in college football?
Before the 2025 season, rematches in the College Football Playoff were relatively rare. With only four teams in the field for most of the playoff’s existence, it was not particularly common for two teams to meet again in the playoff bracket having played earlier in the season.
But when the playoffs expanded to 12 teams, the increase in both bids and title pathways made rematches more likely – the first 12-team playoff in 2024 generated as many rematches (one) as in the entire 10-year history of the four-team system. However, the number of rematches has increased this year. Two of the four games in the first round of the 2025 College Football Playoff alone were rematches. Now, in the quarter finals, Georgia And ole miss See you in another rematch. and if both Ohio State And Indiana A fourth rematch will be in the cards if we advance to the title game.
The Bulldogs swept the Rebels when the two SEC squads met in mid-October. However, the good news for Ole Miss is that revenge has proven to be a compelling factor in the short history of playoff rematches. In three of the four playoff rematches, the team that lost the previous match came out on top.
Is this the beginning of a trend that will hold true for the remainder of the playoff existence? Or an aberration arising from there being only a few examples? The rebels will consider adding another data point on Thursday, suggesting the former.
Here’s how the four rematches have played out in College Football Playoff history.
strongest point on oklahomaThe resume of hosting the College Football Playoff during the 2025 season was its impressive victory in mid-November over then-No. ranked 4th alabama In Tuscaloosa. But the Sooners’ regular season victory over the Crimson Tide did not mean much in the playoff game in Norman.
Regardless of the final score, a road team’s first win in an away game in the 12-team playoff era certainly seemed impossible at the beginning. While Alabama struggled out of the gate, Oklahoma jumped out to a 17–0 lead. However, the Crimson Tide proceeded to counterattack with 27 unanswered points and ultimately scored a decisive blow in the fourth quarter to advance to the quarterfinals.
On the shore, things were definitely different ole miss And tulaneA playoff rematch versus the two schools’ regular season contest. The head coaches of both teams had already taken other jobs: at Ole Miss, Pete Golding replaced Lane Kiffin – who stepped down. LSU Coached in his final game for the Green Wave at the end of the regular season – and after John Sumrall accepted it Florida Work.
However, on the field, the rematch was anything but a mirror image of the earlier Ole Miss–Tulane clash. In September, the Rebels’ offense rolled up 548 yards. 45-10 win. In the playoffs, Ole Miss’s offense gained 497 total yards in a 41–10 victory.
Ohio State And oregonThe meeting during the 2024 regular season was a thrilling thriller – the teams exchanged fourth quarter scores before the Ducks went ahead on a late field goal and won by one point in Eugene. But when the two teams faced off again in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, it was a different story altogether.
The future national champion Buckeyes looked unbeatable from the blocks, scoring on six of their seven drives in the first half and taking a commanding 34–8 lead at halftime. Ohio State scored only once more in the second half, but its clinically efficient first thirty minutes proved more than enough to avenge the regular season loss.
For most of the 2021 college football season, Georgia was primed to win a national title – en route to an undefeated regular season, with only one of its wins being decided by a single point, in Week 1. CLEMSONHowever, in the SEC Championship Game against Alabama, the Bulldogs fell behind and lost, 41-24,
Fortunately, Kirby Smart’s squad had a short collective memory. after beating michigan In the playoff semifinals, Georgia and Alabama played again to decide the national championship. there, its been a while kelly ringo The pick-six sealed the Bulldogs’ first national title in decades – as well as avenged the SEC championship result.
