The College Football Playoff national semifinal at the Peach Bowl marks a rematch of No. 1 seed Indiana’s 30-20 win against No. 5 Oregon in October, the first of several results this year that have left the Hoosiers knocking on the door of a historic and unbeaten season.

With two more wins, Indiana would become the first 16-0 national champion since Yale in 1894. But in order to make history, the Hoosiers will need to reverse some recent history.

Since the 1996 season, there have been seven regular-season rematches in the College Football Playoff and in national championship games played under the two previous postseason formats, the Bowl Championship Series and the Bowl Alliance. Four of these pairings have occurred since the playoff expanded last season.

Surprisingly, all but one of these games have seen the loser from the regular season rebound to win the rematch. This could be a coincidence. At a minimum, though, this trend shows the difficulties in defeating an elite opponent twice in under a four-month span.

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The Hoosiers look to buck that recent history. Here’s a look back at these rematches and what they might suggest about the Peach Bowl:

Ole Miss vs. Georgia, 2025

Results: Georgia 43-35, Ole Miss 39-34.

Ole Miss led Georgia in the second half when the two met in October but coughed up a lead for its one and only loss on the year. The two SEC rivals met again in the Sugar Bowl earlier this month, with the Rebels pulling out the win on a late field goal. Unlike during the regular season, Ole Miss landed a big game from Trinidad Chambliss and did much better running the ball, indicating how teams can strategize by looking back and evaluating the previous matchup.

Ole Miss vs. Tulane, 2025

Results: Ole Miss 45-10, Ole Miss 41-10.

Here’s the one outlier. The Rebels stampeded over Tulane at home in September and then did the same in the opening round. The one difference: Lane Kiffin was the head coach for the first game and Pete Golding for the second. In this case, a significant edge in talent was the biggest factor in helping Ole Miss defy recent history.

Oklahoma vs. Alabama, 2025

Results: Oklahoma 23-21, Alabama 34-24.

Again, an SEC rematch that reversed the regular-season result. Oklahoma’s win in November sparked its run to the playoff. That seemed to carry over to the opening round, when the Sooners stormed out to a 17-0 lead. But the Tide crawled back to tie for the biggest comeback in playoff history.

Oregon vs. Ohio State, 2024

Results: Oregon 32-31, Ohio State 41-21.

Oregon narrowly pulled out the win in Autzen Stadium and then went on to post a perfect regular season, earning the top seed in the debut of the expanded playoff. But in the Rose Bowl the Ducks ran into a buzzsaw in the Buckeyes, who stormed out to a 34-0 late in the second quarter and won going away. A year later, Oregon hopes to follow Ohio State’s blueprint and score the upset against the unbeaten Big Ten champs.

Alabama vs. Georgia, 2021

Results: Alabama 42-24, Georgia 33-18.

The Tide knocked off then-unbeaten Georgia in the SEC championship game behind 421 yards and three touchdowns from quarterback Bryce Young. That landed Alabama in the four-team playoff as the No. 1 seed, while Georgia slotted in at No. 3. The pair met in the championship game after beating Cincinnati and Michigan, respectively, and the Bulldogs would hold Young to 6.5 yards per throw and make two picks to take the first of back-to-back titles.

LSU vs. Alabama, 2011

Results: LSU 9-6, Alabama 21-0

The Tigers’ overtime win during the regular season was about as ugly as the score suggests with five field goals being the only scores. The rematch in the title game about two months later wasn’t any better. Alabama’s defense barely allowed LSU to cross midfield in this second meeting to win the second of Nick Saban’s six titles in Tuscaloosa.

Results: Florida State 24-21, Florida 52-20.

No other rematch has come within such a short time frame. FSU topped Florida on Nov. 30 to end the regular season and drew the immediate rematch in the Sugar Bowl, which was designated as the championship game in the Bowl Alliance format, because then-No. 2 Arizona State was obligated to face No. 4 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. This time, Steve Spurrier’s Gators bombarded the Seminoles to capture the first national title in program history with the Sun Devils falling to the Buckeyes.

• An Indiana University fan sprinkled holy water on the field before the Big Ten championship game.
• The water came from a well at the Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center in Bloomington.
• This water is believed by some to have spiritual and healing properties, with several cures attributed to it.

When photographer Garrett Ewald flew in from New York for the Big Ten Football championship at Lucas Oil Stadium, he had no plans of pouring an 8-ounce bottle of holy water onto the Indiana end zone, water pumped from a well at a Catholic retreat center in Bloomington where the liquid has long been touted as having spiritual and healing properties.

He, admittedly, was a tad nervous that “someone might tackle me and call Homeland Security or something” as he nonchalantly sprinkled the holy water on Indiana football’s sideline and end zone before they took on Ohio State.

But his heart got the best of him. His roots got the best of him; he’s an IU grad. The idea of that water got the best of him. “What the hell?” said Ewald, who was on the field to shoot photos for The Bloomingtonian. “You never know.”

Earlier that day, Ewald had visited Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center a few miles west of Bloomington, located on a hilly, lush green, peaceful property where people have gathered to pray, to heal and to attend retreats for more than 30 years.

Ewald was brought there by his friend and longtime IU senior associate athletics director Harold Mauro, whose grandchild is buried on the property. For years, Mauro has been devoted to the center, doing maintenance and upkeep at the place he and those who love it call “the farm.”

Mauro not only spent 22 years as athletics administrator at IU, he played football for IU the last time the team made the Rose Bowl in 1968. He was a part of nine of IU’s 10 bowl games as a player, assistant coach or administrator.

“And so we were there with Harold visiting. My other friends were maybe a little bit more religious than I am, but I went with an open mind and was happy to see how much joy it brought to Harold,” Ewald said. “He mentioned in passing how the well on the property has had some moderately documented examples of miraculous healing. And he insisted on giving us (water), so he gave us a little plastic jug of water when we left.”

At some point on his drive to Lucas Oil Stadium from the farm, Ewald had an idea. “I said, ‘You know, I’ll bring some in and I’ll sprinkle it on the field.’” He dumped out an 8-ounce bottle of regular water, put the holy water in its place and made his move.

“I was trying to be a little bit surreptitious, so I walked holding the bottle in one hand, the lid just slightly open, and then my other hand had my cellphone,” he said. “I just kind of walked down behind the bench, dribbling water out as I went. And then I walked across the Indiana end zone as well, sprinkling the rest of the water as I went. And I let Harold know that I had done it, and he was like, ‘That’s great.’”

Mauro didn’t ask him to do it, but Ewald thought it would make him happy.

Then, Ohio State missed that 27-yard field goal wide left with less than 3 minutes to play, which could have tied the game 13-13. It was missed it in the end zone where Ewald had sprinkled the water.

IU walked away with its first outright Big Ten championship since 1945.

Of course, as faith usually goes, no one had any proof that water had done anything. Few even knew of Ewald’s sprinkling. But those who did, and those who believed, were all in on making sure that water followed IU as far as their magical football playoff run took them.

They made sure the holy water from the farm was in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. And it will be there Friday for the Peach Bowl.

And should IU make it to the national championship, the holy water will flow there as well.

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‘Our Lady was like the 12th man on the field’

Fr. Terrance Chartier didn’t find out the water from his farm had blessed the IU portion of Lucas Oil’s field until after the game when Mauro’s wife sent him a video of Ewald pouring it out at the stadium.

“And I thought of Our Lady as like the 12th man on the field,” said Chartier, a priest with the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, who is stationed at the Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center. “I thought she was there, especially with the field goal. Indoors, no wind, no rain, 27-yard field goal.

“I watched almost in disbelief as the kicker totally missed. I noted afterwards that the kicker was kicking into the same end zone with Indiana’s name on it, same end zone where Indiana had scored their touchdown in the third quarter and the same end zone that I saw Harold’s friend sprinkling the farm water in that video.”