We opened the College Football Playoff quarterfinals with an upset. With an early 14-0 burst and a clutch, late touchdown drive, No. 10 Miami took down No. 2 Ohio State 24-14 in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic in Arlington, Texas.

That’s quite the tone-setter. The next three quarterfinals will all take place Thursday — do we have more upsets on the way? Who is most prepared to take advantage with the defending champions vanquished?

Here are the primary takeaways from the quarterfinal round.

What just happened?

Miami combined steady and efficient offense with a 72-yard Keionte Scott pick-six to race to a 14-0 lead, and when Ohio State rallied to get to within 17-14 in the second half, the Hurricanes responded with a perfect five-minute, 70-yard touchdown drive to ice the game.

Miami’s defense dominated early. Star ends Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor combined for three sacks in the first half, and Ohio State punted on four of its first five drives. After Julian Sayin hit Jeremiah Smith for a 59-yard bomb in the second quarter, Scott pounced on a telegraphed screen pass and took it the other way for a score.

The second half was a battle of toughness. Ohio State established a solid run game and got a few more big catches from Smith — he finished with seven catches for 157 yards and a touchdown — and crawled back to within 17-14. But Miami dusted off burly North Dakota State transfer CharMar Brown; in his first six touches of the CFP, he gained 31 yards. After the Hurricanes pulled off third-and-4 and third-and-3 conversions, Brown scored from 5 yards with 55 seconds left. Jakobe Thomas‘ interception sealed the upset.

Impact plays

Miami controlled the early going, but a Mark Fletcher Jr. fumble prevented the Canes from taking a quick lead. He made up for it with a 9-yard touchdown catch off of a faked Carson Beck sneak, and Scott’s pick-six shifted the odds in the Hurricanes’ favor.

play

Miami stuns Buckeyes with a 72-yard pick-six

Miami’s Keionte Scott intercepts Julian Sayin and takes it 72 yards to the house for the Hurricanes.

After cutting Miami’s lead to 17-14, Smith caught a huge, 16-yard pass on third-and-15 as the clock ticked under eight minutes. But a holding penalty — the first accepted penalty of the game — forced the Buckeyes backward. After a 53-yard punt was nullified by an illegal formation penalty, a shorter punt set up Miami at the 30. The Hurricanes basically iced the game with a lovely, 13-yard screen pass to CJ Daniels on third downs (he moved the chains three times on third downs), but Brown’s touchdown officially sealed it.

See you next fall, Buckeyes

Ohio State’s season was almost perfectly crafted for another national title run. The Buckeyes survived a rock fight against Texas in Week 1, then won their next 11 games by an average of 39-8. And though they lost to Indiana in the Big Ten championship game, they were still set up beautifully for a title run. Instead, they failed to offset a growing trend. In the first five quarterfinal games of the 12-team playoff era, the teams that had a first-round bye have fallen behind by scores of 14-0 (Boise State vs. Penn State), 34-0 (Oregon vs. Ohio State), 17-3 (Arizona State vs. Texas), 20-3 (Georgia vs. Notre Dame) and now 14-0 (Ohio State vs. Miami). The first-round bye, combined with a neutral site bowl, haven’t yet proved to be any sort of reward. Miami took the fight to the rusty Buckeyes early and was rewarded for it.

Ohio State heads into 2026 in perfectly solid shape, of course. Sayin will return after throwing for 3,610 yards and 32 touchdowns in 2025 (he had 287 and one TD on Wednesday night), and the major stars in the skill corps — Smith and running back Bo Jackson (11 carries for 55 yards) — should be back as well. The Buckeyes are built to compete every year in a 12-team playoff era.

Still, a missed opportunity is a missed opportunity. After looking like the best team in the country for 12 games, the Buckeyes finished 2025 with back-to-back losses, and as Miami made this game a test of physicality and toughness, Ohio State couldn’t respond appropriately.

What’s next

After becoming the first double-digit seed to win a playoff game, Miami has now become the first to reach a semifinal. It was very much in doubt whether Mario Cristobal’s Hurricanes would make the CFP at all, but they’ve made the most of the opportunity. They’ll play either Georgia or Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl. With the way their defensive line has dominated, and with Beck’s excellent ball control — he threw for only 138 yards Wednesday, but he was 19-for-26 and almost never put the ball in harm’s way — the Hurricanes are going to have a shot against any team they play.

This was, quite simply, the biggest Miami win since 2002. With loads of former Hurricanes greats on the sideline — from Michael Irvin, to Ray Lewis, to former coach Jimmie Johnson — college football’s history was very much present in Arlington. And the Hurricanes managed to overcome both recent ghosts and Ohio State’s talent to survive and advance.

When the calendar flipped from 2024 to 2025, neither of the teams that ultimately played in the national championship game were ranked in the top-five of the AP Top 25 poll. Florida began the new year at No. 6, and Houston started the new year at No. 14.

That they ended up being the last two teams standings inside the Alamodome on April 7 shows that the saying, “new year, new me” can apply to college basketball teams. As 2026 arrives, so does the heart of conference play and a line in the sand.

Didn’t accomplish what you wanted to in November and December? January and February bring a shot for redemption. Houston started slow a year ago before ratcheting up the intensity with the start of Big 12 play to go 19-1. It’s almost as if the Cougars resolved anew to be the nastiest, grittiest team in college basketball.

Top 25 college basketball stories of 2025, ranked: Florida wins title; Duke, Cooper Flagg fall in Final Four

Matt Norlander

Against that backdrop, we are setting out to make New Year’s resolutions on behalf of some of college basketball’s 2025-26 contenders for this week’s Dribble Handoff.

I hope Peterson plays Saturday for the first time in three weeks; I gather that’s the plan. Either way, my hope is that everybody can find a way to stay reasonable even if the five-star freshman misses what would be his 10th game of the season at UCF, because, as I’ve said many times on recent episodes of the Eye On College Basketball Podcast, some of the hysteria connected to Peterson’s absence has seemed a little overblown, at least from my perspective.

Has it been frustrating for KU fans? Certainly. Has it been frustrating for KU coach Bill Self? How could it not be? But here’s the truth: basketball players missing multiple weeks, or even multiple months, with injuries and issues like the injuries and issues Peterson has reportedly been dealing with isn’t all too uncommon in the NBA, nor is a player, or his family/advisors, having a say in any plan for a return to the court. From that perspective, all of this has been more normal than it might appear to some. But, yes, it would be awesome if it were a big college basketball story that soon becomes an old college basketball story, because we’re only going to get one year of Peterson in the Big 12, and it would be a shame if the memories from it were mostly tied to the possible No. 1 overall pick of the 2026 NBA Draft sitting on a bench in street clothes watching a season unfold without him . — Gary Parrish

Tennessee: Give Nate Ament a full-time green light

As this 2025-26 freshman class has grown into maybe the strongest in the sport’s history, one top-10 prospect has drifted into the background a bit. Nate Ament has been productive (15.4 ppg, 6.9 rpg) but hasn’t been in that upper-echelon conversation with the likes of Cam Boozer, AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Darius Acuff Jr., Mikel Brown Jr. and even Kingston Flemings. 

I do think Ament could have a stronger second half of the season vs. what we saw in November and December. His shooting splits have to improve, and while Ja’Kobi Gillespie running the point is going to be UT’s most important factor in pushing for the top of the SEC, Ament displaying his array of offensive skills will be nearly as necessary if the Vols are going to be a 4-seed or better for a fifth straight season. I think this is the SEC team with the widest gap between ceiling and floor. The 10-3 Volunteers open up league play this weekend at Arkansas, a spicy test to get January going. Rick Barnes’ team has two high-quality wins (vs. Houston in Las Vegas in November, home against Louisville in December), with losses to Kansas, Syracuse and Illinois also on the docket. Ament hasn’t been his best against the best teams. 

Time for him to level up, and time for Barnes to scheme up his best talent, because we’ll be seeing the same elsewhere in that league at schools like Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama and Auburn. — Matt Norlander

Florida: Stay in the gym until shooting improves

Among the more perplexing early-season developments is defending national champion Florida’s inability to shoot at even a Division I average from 3-point range. It is shooting 6.8% below the Division I average on above-the-break 3-pointers per CBB Analytics data, which last season was one of its many strengths. And its 3-point shooting percentage amid a 9-4 start is 28.2%. That ranks 340th among 344 teams. That is abysmal for a Gators team that ranked No. 3 in the preseason and was fifth nationally in scoring per game just a season ago. 

The Gators have a roster worth millions of dollars and the staff targeted players who’d previously shot it well — among them Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee — but the numbers thus far have been ugly. Fland is shooting 22.2% on 3-pointers and Lee is at 25.3%. And even returning players who previously shot it well from distance like Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh are below their percentages from last season. 

It’s been ugly all the way around. Florida as a team should make a resolution to hold an open gym and lock its doors until this improves. There are bubbling reasons why it has not perhaps been better — the guard play has been inconsistent, turnovers have been an issue and depth (or lack thereof) is a problem. But it’s almost inexplicable that this team is not only the worst among all SEC teams in 3-point percentage — but also the worst among all major conference teams in 3-point percentage. That has to improve, and dramatically, before Florida can even begin to start daydreaming about a repeat. — Kyle Boone

Kentucky: Shoot fewer 3-pointers

Kentucky is 2-1 against high-major opponents when shooting 16 or fewer 3-pointers and 0-3 against high-major opponents when shooting 30 or more 3-pointers. For this UK team, less is more when it comes to outside shooting. In theory, Kam Williams, Jasper Johnson, Collin Chandler and Trent Noah were meant to comprise a solid nucleus of perimeter marksmen. In practice, they are role players who have struggled mightily to find anything resembling a rhythm against quality opponents. UK is at its best when playing in transition, attacking the basket and crashing the glass. 

Second-year coach Mark Pope is tactically brilliant and might prefer an artful style built around a bunch of 40% 3-point shooters. But he needs to acknowledge this Kentucky team won’t be winning an offensive beauty contest this season. The Wildcats should resolve to shoot less from beyond the arc and attack more for the remainder of the 2025-26 season. — David Cobb

Providence: A recommittment to doing the hard things  

It’s soul-searching season for a 7-6 Providence club that was one of the big-money spenders in free agency. Providence can’t go anywhere in the Big East without finding the gumption to settle in and play defense, box out and stop playing “after me, you come first” offense. This defense needs an intervention. The Friars have allowed 1.23 points per possession in six games against top-100 teams, per hoop-explorer. That rates 347th (!) nationally. Whenever big man Oswin Erhunmwunse checks out, Providence’s defense rates 365th nationally against top-100 teams. That’s dead last in America. 

As usual, everything in basketball is interconnected, and it’s hard to watch Providence and not feel that this group is playing unconnected, selfish basketball. The defensive effort is uninspiring at best and horrific at worst. The lack of ball movement offensively and the amount of quick-trigger jacks consistently put this transition defense in bad spots, too. 

This team is unquestionably talented, but something has to give in a hurry. Jason Edwards‘ heaters are unstoppable. When he gets his feet set, freshman Stefan Vaaks is a net-shredder. Jaylin Sellers is a freakshow in transition. If rims could talk, they’d be terrified of Sellers’ lefty drives. Jamier Jones looks like a senior linebacker trapped in a freshman’s body. There’s a good team in here somewhere, but it’s getting late early.

We’ll learn a ton about the Friars’ mental fortitude and whether they want to make something of this season in the next six days. Providence travels to St. John’s on Saturday before hosting No. 4 UConn in an enormous tilt on Wednesday.  — Isaac Trotter