College Football Playoff continues this week with a pair of semifinal games slated for Thursday and Friday. No. 7 Notre Dame will play No. 6 Penn State on Thursday, Jan. 9 in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami while No.

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.