Mandel: Will college football’s newfound Semifinal Saturday finally deliver?

On Jan. 1, 2015, major college football hosted the first set of Playoff semifinals in the near 150-year history of the sport. And they were awesome. Marcus Mariota-led Oregon toppled Jameis Winston-led Florida State in that afternoon’s Rose Bowl. Urban Meyer and Ohio State upset Nick Saban’s top-seeded Alabama squad in the Sugar Bowl that evening.

Each game garnered more than 28 million viewers, a larger audience than had watched the previous four BCS championship games.