Sports fans will be able to celebrate the first day of 2025 with a packed viewing schedule as six powerhouses battle in three College Football Playoff (CFP) quarterfinals. In the New Year's Day quarters,

College football will have consecutive national champions from outside the Sun Belt region for the first time in three decades if Ohio State beats Texas in a playoff semifinal this week.

That pair, and others like it, became part of notable trend in the 2024-25 bowl season: 21 of the 30 non-Playoff bowls that aired on an ESPN network through Jan. 2 saw year-over-year viewership increases, the majority of them by 20 percent or more.