The College Football Playoff field has been narrowed to four teams, with (6) Penn State, (7) Notre Dame, (5) Texas, and (8) Ohio State remaining in the national title hunt. The Nittany Lions defeated (3) Boise State in the first quarterfinal game on New Year's Eve to set up a date with the Fighting Irish in the Orange Bowl on Thursday.

There are 47 total bowl games in the 2024-25 season, including four college football playoff first round games, four quarterfinal games, two semifinals, and the national championship on Monday, January 20.

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.