Yesterday came out as a blessing for some teams, while for others, it was a nightmare. No. 1 Oregon, no. 5 Georgia Bulldogs, no. 10 Boise State, no. 13 Arizona State, and no. 17 Clemson fans were on the could nine, as these teams won their respective conference games, crushing their opponents. They directly booked a slot in the 12-team playoff bracket, entering the playoff. Now college football analysts have figured out one common reason among most of these teams, which is that it directly or indirectly played a role in their victories.

On the December 8 episode of the David Pollack College Football Show, Pollack pointed out one obvious reason that was favorable for the winning teams. “And we got basically home games in the college in this championship weekend; Boise was a home, and Jacksonville State Princeton was basically a home game. Georgia was basically a home game. And then Louisiana played a home. The only one to win on the road was the thundering Marshall getting itself there.”

Boise State continued a second-game-winning streak against the Mountain West Conference championship on Friday, crushing No. 20 UNLV 21-7 at Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho. Then there is the Georgia vs. Texas game, where the Bulldogs crushed Steve Sarkisian’s Longhorns in a 22-19 victory, playing at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Jacksonville played a conference championship game against Kentucky and won the 52-12 game at the Burgess-Snow field at First Stadium Friday night. However, the only home game loss was for Louisiana getting crushed 3-31 against Marshall, played at Cajun Field. Moving forward, analysts pointed out that the home game setup certainly helped these teams win the game.

“But it was a 70% Georgia crowd in Atlanta today, at least right around there, like the SMU game, Clemson, heavily there. So, in Conference Champions week, in all these home games, home teams win for the most part. How big is that going to be in round one if all those teams are going to be at home, all those types of matchups, because it’s an advantage for them.”

Clemson will be a No. 12 seed after winning the conference game, while Rhett Lashlee’s SMU might come above them with the No. 11 seed and they might sideline Alabama Crimson Tide. Basically, the home game setup, one way or another, helped these winning teams secure a spot in the playoff. There can be many factors, like the familiarity of the place or the local crowd of fans cheering their home team, and traveling to the place could be a tiring reason for their opponents. Meanwhile, let’s look at the college football playoff picture after these games.

The 12-team college football playoff

The newly implemented 12-team college football playoff field is set after a wild championship weekend. Oregon, Georgia, Boise State, and Arizona State automatically snagged the top four seeds, enjoying first-round byes. The rest of the teams will face high-stakes matchups on December 20-21.

With Texas hosting Clemson, Penn State is playing against SMU, Notre Dame is facing Indiana, and Ohio State is taking on Tennessee. The winners of these games will advance to the quarterfinals on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, where the top seeds await in the Fiesta, Peach, Rose, and Sugar Bowls.

Then there will be semifinals hitting orange and cotton bowls on January 9-10, and finally, the national title game set for an. 20 in Atlanta. Tighten your seatbelts, as the journey is going to be rocky!