College Football Playoff First Round Game ·

College Football Playoff First Round Game

College Football Playoff First Round Game Presented by Allstate
No. 12 SMU11-310
No. 5 Penn State12-238Final
Sat, Dec 21 · Beaver Stadium, University Park, Pa. · Crowd 106,013 · 25°, cloudyTNT

Records are after this game. Rankings are the AP poll before it.

No. 5 Penn State beat No. 12 SMU by 28 points, the College Football Playoff First Round Game.

How the game turned

Penn State aheadSMU ahead
12

Q1 6:08 Penn State 7, SMU 0

Penn State 75% to win

DeLuca interception return TD, Penn State goes ahead 7-0

Big moments

  1. 1Q1 6:08 · Penn State 7, SMU 0Penn State's win chance rose from 60% to 75%.DeLuca interception return TD, Penn State goes ahead 7-0
  2. 2Q2 13:09 · Penn State 14, SMU 0Penn State's win chance rose from 79% to 94%.Rojas interception return TD, Penn State leads 14-0

Penn State was never below a 60 percent chance to win. Win chance is our own calculation from the play-by-play, with each game's start set from the pregame expectation.

How the lead changed

Penn State led after every score.

What happened next

  1. Penn State's next game: W 31-14 vs Boise State in the College Football Playoff Quarterfinal at the VRBO Fiesta Bowl, Dec 31

    10 days later

  2. SMU finished the 2024 season 11-3, No. 12 in the last AP poll before the bowls.

  3. SMU's first game of the 2025 season: W 42-13 vs East Texas A&M, Aug 30, 2025

    about 8 months later

Related pages

Scores, dates and the stage: ESPN. Win chance: our curve from play-by-play; the turn is its largest one-play change that moved with the score.

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