Good morning, and welcome back to CFB Roundup from CFB Home – the first daily newsletter that’s all college football, all the time with no bias, no slant, and no fluff.

YESTERDAY’S RESULTS:

TODAY’S SCHEDULE:

Betting Information as of time of writing

Texas Squeaks Win Out in Double Overtime Thriller over Arizona State, 39-31

Texas narrowly beat Arizona State 39-31 in the Peach Bowl in an all-time instant classic, double overtime thriller.

After Arizona State’s first drive ended in a field goal, Texas came down to score a touchdown in all of 2 plays before Silas Bolden returned a punt back for a touchdown before Texas even had another offensive drive. After Texas added one more field goal in the 2nd quarter, Texas took a 17-3 lead into the half.

Arizona State scored a safety and then a field goal in the 3rd quarter to make it a 9-point game, but Quinn Ewers ran in a 5-yard scramble to give the Longhorns an 11-point lead. With Arizona State having not scored a touchdown all day, 2 touchdowns and two-point conversions looked almost insurmountable. However, Cam Skattebo and the Sun Devils battled back to tie the game at 24 with 5 minutes to play, with both teams having really great opportunities to win the game in regulation.

These opportunities included not one, but two missed field goals from Texas’ Bert Auburn, including a field goal which doinked off the left upright as time expired. There was also a controversial review late, as Texas only got the ball back thanks to a targeting review coming back as not targeting against Texas’ Michael Taaffe, when a targeting call would’ve extended the drive.

And then in the first overtime, Arizona State scored on its first drive to take a 31-24 lead before getting Texas into a 4th and 13 from the 28. But Matthew Golden was able to get open in the end zone and hold on to send the game into double overtime when it would’ve been over for the Longhorns otherwise. And then, in double overtime, Gunnar Helm took a touchdown on the first play (with an incredible catch on the two-point conversion from Matthew Golden) to give the Longhorns a 39-31 lead. The Texas defense finally stopped the Arizona State offense and called ballgame on an Andrew Mukuba interception.

Cam Skattebo won Peach Bowl MVP, and for good reason. Skattebo threw a 42-yard touchdown pass, led the team with 30/143/2 rushing, and led the team with 8/99 receiving. QB Sam Leavitt finished 24/46 for 222 yards and the game-ending interception.

The Sun Devils outgained Texas by well over 100 yards (510-375), mainly because of work on the ground, as Texas only ran for 53 yards on 30 rush attempts. Tre Wisner (18/45) and Jaydon Blue (4/4) struggled to run the ball, as the only rushing touchdown was the Quinn Ewers scramble mentioned earlier.

Ewers finished 20/30 for 322 yards, 3 touchdowns, and an interception, with Matthew Golden (7/149/1) leading all receiving options, with Gunnar Helm (3/56/1), Wisner (4/40), Ryan Wingo (2/33), and DeAndre Moore Jr. (2/25/1) also contributing heavily.

With the win, Texas will now face Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl on January 10th. The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy tweeted out that the projected line would be Texas -2, however, Ohio State is already favored by 5.5 on FanDuel (as of the time of writing) with juice towards Ohio State.

Ohio State Blows Out Oregon After Racing Out to 34-0 Lead in First Half

Ohio State beat Oregon 41-21 in a Rose Bowl Game that was basically over in the middle of the 2nd quarter.

The Peach Bowl had not even ended yet before Ohio State had gotten on the board with a 45-yard pass from Will Howard to Jeremiah Smith.

A handful of drives later, and it was 31-0 with 8:47 left in the 2nd quarter. By halftime, Oregon had scored a touchdown as the first half expired, the score was 34-8. Oregon did cut the score to 34-15, which changed the ESPN Win Probability from about 99+% to something closer to 97% or 98%. But another touchdown from each team, with Oregon’s coming in the 4th quarter, and the final score was 41-21.

Ohio State finished with 500 yards — which is only surprising because they were at 390 at halftime — compared to Oregon’s 276.

For Ohio State, QB Will Howard was 17/26 for 319 yards and 3 touchdowns, with the bulk of that work going to Jeremiah Smith (7/187/2) and Emeka Egbuka (5/72/1). RBs TreVeyon Henderson (8/94/2) and Quinshon Judkins (17/85) excelled on the ground.

For Oregon, QB Dillon Gabriel finished 29/41 for 299 yards and 2 touchdowns, with Traeshon Holden (7/116/2) and Terrance Ferguson (5/71) getting a majority of the team’s receiving yards. On the ground, after accounting for sack yardage on Ohio State’s 8 sacks, Oregon had actually lost 23 yards. RBs Jordan James (7/14), Jayden Limar (2/4), and Noah Whittington (6/3/1) did little to offset that sack yardage, though. Ohio State got 2 sacks from all of Cody Simon (11 tackles/2 sacks/3 TFLs), JT Tuimoloau (3/2/3), and Jack Sawyer (2/2/2/3 pass deflections).

With the win, Ohio State now heads to the Cotton Bowl on the 10th to face off against Texas, as Oregon’s season ends on January 1st after going undefeated in the regular season and winning the Big Ten to be the final FBS team undefeated – a distinction it held for a longer time than the last undefeated team usually holds the honor.

Sugar Bowl Postponed to Today at 4 PM ET

The Sugar Bowl, which was originally scheduled for January 1st at roughly 8:45 PM ET, has been rescheduled for January 2nd at 4 PM ET after an event the authorities are currently calling a terrorist attack that has left at least 15 people killed after the suspect allegedly drove a pickup truck down Bourbon Street into a crowd.

Authorities also confirmed that explosives were found near the site, as well as an ISIS flag being on the back of the truck. Police swept the Superdome for explosives and did not find any, but ultimately it was still determined the Sugar Bowl should be pushed back until later this afternoon to err on the side of caution.

Louisiana Attorney General Lisa Murrill has said there is no larger threat at the current time. ESPN’s Laura Rutledge also shared that, “law enforcement is coming from all over the place to beef up this security operation as much as possible, and that was very important to not only the city officials, as well as the FBI, the College Football Playoff officials and the Sugar Bowl officials. That’s been the priority.”

ESPN Announces New Gator Bowl Time After Sugar Bowl Rescheduled to 4 PM

ESPN shared that the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl between #15 Ole Miss and Duke would be postponed slightly to accommodate for the updated kickoff time in the Sugar Bowl, pushing the Gator Bowl back to 8 PM from its original kickoff time of 7:30 PM.

The Under Armour All-America Game, which also starts at 4 PM, is now being pushed to ESPN2 to accommodate for the Sugar Bowl being moved to ESPN at the same.

Ohio State QB Will Howard not Allowed on Rose Bowl Stage to Celebrate

Rose Bowl officials did not let Ohio State QB Will Howard on to the stage to celebrate with his Coach and some of his teammates after Ohio State beat Oregon 41-21 to advance to the CFP Semifinal.

Howard conducted an on-field interview with ESPN, and then went over to the stage but a bowl official denied multiple attempts from Howard to get on to the stage.

In the moment, Howard shared, “Yeah I know, they’re blocking me over there, too. Guys, there’s a weight limit, apparently. They’re literally blocking me out.”

Fans and teammates tried yelling at the bowl officials that Howard is the team’s QB, but to no avail.

SEC Newcomer Texas Has Earned SEC $14M From Winning First Two CFP Games

According to Front Office Sports, Texas has earned the SEC $14M in its first season in the conference for winning its first two CFP games.

The top half of the SEC has struggled in bowl season thus far, including a drubbing for Tennessee and losses by South Carolina and Alabama. But newcomer Texas has survived and advanced twice, which comes with payouts for the winning conference in the form of bowl payouts for each game participated in.

Between Texas, Tennessee, and Georgia, the conference has brought in $26M thus far for the CFP, with that total increasing to $32M if Georgia beats Notre Dame this evening.

If Texas beats Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl to get to the National Championship, it, too, will earn the SEC another $6M.

Deion Sanders Shouts Out Kenny Dillingham After Arizona State Takes Texas to Wire

Colorado Coach Deion Sanders shared on Twitter, “You represented all of us from the @Big12 well my brother. We are proud of u and your team. God bless u all. You’re awesome COTY.”

To which, Coach Dillingham shared, “Thank you coach!”

In the two coaches’ only matchup, Colorado defeated Arizona State 27-24 in 2023 as members of the Pac-12.

Both coaches had incredible 2024s that saw each of them as candidates for the Big 12 Coach of the Year, as well as some National Coach of the Year awards, with Coach Dillingham earning the honors for the Big 12 conference.

Kirby Smart on Georgia’s Backup Situation Behind Gunner Stockton

Georgia Coach Kirby Smart shared some intel on the backup situation behind Gunner Stockton, in the event that Stockton suffers an injury.

Coach Smart was complimentary of QBs Ryan Puglisi and Jaden Rashada, sharing that they’ve done a great job and that their reps have gone up after the injury to Carson Beck moved everyone up on the depth chart one spot.

Coach Smart also shared that both Puglisi and Rashada have accelerated fairly quickly into the role of backup, though he did not share which of the two is the QB2 going into the Sugar Bowl.

Texas’ Steve Sarkisian Nets $250k Bonus for Winning Peach Bowl Over Arizona State

Texas beating Arizona State in the Peach Bowl netted Coach Steve Sarkisian a $250,000 bonus according to Steve Berkowitz of USA Today.

In total, Coach Sarkisian has earned $900k in bonuses, a number that can continue to increase with continued winning from the Texas football team in the Cotton Bowl, and possibly the CFP National Championship.

Former Princeton WR Tiger Bech, Brother of TCU WR Jack Bech, Killed in Bourbon Street Terror Attack

Former Princeton player Tiger Bech was among the 15 (and counting) people who were killed in the terrorist attack last night on Bourbon Street.

Bech was only 28 years old, and graduated from Princeton back in 2021 with a degree in finance. He worked as a trader at Seaport global, a New York brokerage firm.

Tiger Bech was also the brother of TCU WR Jack Bech, who had a little over 1,000 receiving yards for the Horned Frogs this season. Both are natives of Lafayette, LA.

Jack Bech shared on Twitter, “Love you always brother ! You inspired me everyday now you get to be with me in every moment. I got this family T, don’t worry. This is for us ❤️”

Rest in peace to Tiger Bech, and thoughts and prayers with the entire Bech family.

Other Commitments/Decommitments

Unrated DL Mickel Williams commits to UTSA

Unrated DL DeSean Watts commits to Sacramento State

2026 Unrated EDGE Kingston Shaw commits to Illinois