As bowl season comes to a close, here are a couple thoughts on college football and the new challenges teams are facing.

Opt-outs, the transfer portal, and NIL have all changed the college football landscape.

As a result, the anticipation around bowl season has steadily waned. After being ousted from the College Football Playoffs, Florida State sent out a team devoid of star power and subsequently got smoked by Georgia in the Orange Bowl. Maybe that was the point. Either way, the question then becomes: are all non-playoff bowl games doomed, or is there a bright spot in all of this?

The answer is: yes. Both are true. The bowl games that do not make next year’s 12-team College Football Playoff bracket will continue to be an afterthought for both players and fans.

But with the new transfer portal windows allowing players to exit their current team before playing in a bowl game, and more and more players opting out of bowl games to prepare for the NFL draft, there are more opportunities for fans to see unheralded college players that might just become the future of their favorite team.

Enter Miller Moss, the junior quarterback from USC who carved up the Louisville Cardinals to the tune of 6 touchdowns in the DIRECTV Holiday Bowl. After Caleb Williams announced his decision to enter the 2024 NFL Draft, and former 5-star recruit Malachi Nelson entered the transfer portal, Moss admirably stepped in to not only lead USC to a dominant victory but also potentially cement himself as the guy going forward for the Trojans. Names like Will Howard and Cam Ward will keep Trojans fans hopeful for a new transfer to come in and take over the team like Williams did in 2022, but Moss made the case that he should be the one leading USC into their first year in the Big Ten. The small sample size against Louisville might be a flash in the pan, but Moss displayed the sort of quick release and ball placement that made him a hot recruit in 2021.

If anything, this bowl game gave fans a glimpse at what the saying next man up truly means. For Moss, that meant a chance to cement himself as the guy going forward, and for that, fans should be thankful that Williams decided to opt out.

Which Bowl Will Give Us A Rematch in Next Year’s Semi-Finals?

In a rematch from the 2022 Alamo Bowl, we will see Washington and Texas square off in a rematch that is a College Football Playoff semi-final. This begs the question: which game from this bowl season will we see become a rematch in next year’s semi-final game?

A few games come to mind. Ole Miss-Penn State is an easy pick. So is Georgia-Florida State. One could even argue the aforementioned USC-Louisville game could give fans a rematch with much higher stakes next bowl season. But I’ll go with one matchup that could surprise folks next season as a college football semi-final: Arizona-Oklahoma.

The 2023 Alamo Bowl featured two ascending programs in Arizona and Oklahoma and did not disappoint. After going down 11 points, the Wildcats pulled off an epic comeback to beat the Sooners. The win marked a potential turning point for Arizona and gave them serious momentum as they prepare to leave the Pac-12 and enter the new-look Big 12.

Oklahoma, on the other hand, is on its way to securing another top-ten recruiting class under Brett Venables. They are a program that rebounded from a disappointing 2022 campaign to win 10 games in 2023. Entering the SEC in 2024, Oklahoma will be relying on former five-star quarterback Jackson Arnold and a nasty defense to help it navigate what is going to be a decidedly difficult schedule. But even without earning a top seeding in next year’s 12-team playoff bracket, the Sooners are poised to build on their success and could end up making a deep postseason run in 2024.

After losing to both Washington and USC by a combined 9 points, Arizona reeled off seven straight wins in 2023. Their quarterback, Noah Fifita, has been a big reason for the turnaround. Head coach Jedd Fisch rebuilt the program quicker than many expected, and he takes his team into a murky Big 12 conference with tons of momentum. The Wildcats are not a team to sleep on in 2024, and could absolutely find themselves playing a hot Oklahoma team in one of next year’s college football semi-final playoff games.