Steve Sarkisian considers whether all College Football Playoff games should be on campus

Amid all the social media discourse and controversy over whether certain teams truly deserved to make the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff field, there was one opinion every college football pundit seemed to echo during first-round action this weekend.

Playing College Football Playoff games on campus was a stroke of genius.

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That particular opinion was certainly shared by players and coaches of the eight teams involved in Friday and Saturday’s first-round Playoff games, including Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian.

When asked whether he was in favor of the CFP adopting a more NFL-like postseason scheduling model, which allows home games for the highest-seeded teams until the neutral-site Super Bowl, the Longhorns head man deflected but acknowledged the incredible environement created by having postseason games on college campuses.

“I don’t know. … We have a lot of things in college football, and this is one of those that’s far down on the barometer that we’re dealing with. But I don’t know. It was a great environment,” Sarkisian said Saturday night following Texas‘ 38-24 win over 12th-seeded Clemson in Austin. “I think we’re going to learn a lot from this College Football Playoff, from seeding and home games and bowl games and recruiting calendars and school calendars. There’s a lot. This is the first time out.”

Sarkisian on Playoff environments: ‘Gosh it’s great for college football’

All four Playoff hosts won their respective first-round games this weekend, beginning with No. 7-seeded Notre Dame rolling over in-state Indiana, 27-17, on Friday night from South Bend. That was followed by No. 6-seeded Penn State dominating visiting No. 11 seed SMU, 38-10, in the early game Saturday in a freezing Happy Valley. Saturday’s CFP action was then capped by No. 8-seeded Ohio State destroying No. 9 seed Tennessee, 42-17, in the evening game from a chilly Columbus.

“I can speak to this (scene in Austin) and I can speak to the games I watched on TV, it’s truly created a great environment here. As a fan of college football, I mean, last night when we got done meeting, to watch that environment at Notre Dame, or this morning watching that environment at Penn State, gosh it’s great for college football,” Sarkisian continued. “I feel like the populatilty of college football right now is at an all-time high, and people are intrigued by it. People are loving watching the competitiveness of the games, the parity that’s going on right now in the game.

“Where it goes from here I don’t exacty really know. Do we expand it, do we not? What does that look like? But it’s surely created a lot of buzz. And I think it created a lot of buzz all season long because there were more teams involved with an opportunity to go win a championship. So where it goes from here, I don’t know, but it sure was kind of fun tonight, that’s for sure.”

Sarkisian and No. 5 Texas (12-2) advance to face No. 4-seeded Arizona State (11-2), the Big 12 Champions, in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl national quarterfinal at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, with kickoff set for 1 pm ET, New Year’s Day and be televised on ESPN.

Marcus Freeman reveals keys in ‘cold, December game’ vs. Indiana

Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame wanted “football weather” for Friday’s College Football Playoff opener. They got it with temperatures into the 20s by kickoff – and the Irish dominated in the first half, taking a 17-3 lead into halftime on a cold night in South Bend.

In the second half, though, Freeman said he wanted to see Notre Dame continue its success on the ground. On defense, the Fighting Irish also have to stand strong against the IU rushing attack.

Notre Dame had a monster first half on the ground, led by a 98-yard touchdown from Jeremiyah Love to start its second drive. The Fighting Irish put up 155 rushing yards against the nation’s best run defense while holding Indiana to just 61 yards on the ground. That’s a good recipe for success, and Freeman said that’s important during cold games.

“We knew this was going to be a battle,” Freeman told ABC’s Molly McGrath. “You talk about cold, December games, you’ve got to be able to run the ball, you’ve got to stop the run. That’s something we’ve been doing pretty well. Taking care of the ball for the most part.

“We’ve got to continue to try to make an impact on special teams. This is gonna be a battle. It’s been a good fight. Looking forward to coming back for the second half.”

Nick Schultz contributed to this report.