The State Of College Football
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I’m really disappointed where college football is headed and I’ll tell you why.
For the past year or so the sport has been wrestling with the world of huge money payouts to college-age kids and their ability to transfer to another school as many times as they like.
But now another more alarming event has taken place which I feel is ruining the game.
Despite the hundreds of thousands, even millions being thrown around by the powers that be,
I’ve consistently reminded fans that they don’t have to be aware of the money and the players jumping from school to school.
Simply watch the games without knowing all the details and enjoy the entertainment and meaningful competition that makes it all worthwhile to tune in.
Except now the term ‘meaningful’ will be in question.
Next year’s college football playoff will involve 24 teams instead of the 12 we’ve had for a couple of years. Imagine a scenario with 24 schools in post-season. I’m going way back but I remember growing up when the NCAA basketball tournament consisted of 24 teams. Now it’s 76.
It’s nothing short of hilarious that the revelation that the doubling to 24 for the championship playoff was announced on the same weekend as one of the most memorable featuring an amazing display of surprise results. How exciting that we all saw the #1, #2, #5, #6, and #7 ranked teams all get upset. That’s right. Top ranked Georgia, 2nd rated Notre Dame, #5 Indiana, 6th ranked Alabama, and Texas at #7 all got knocked off. Now, they didn’t all lose to the cupcakes on their schedule, they were beaten by reputable schools for sure.
But here’s where the sport is hurting itself badly.
The term ‘meaningful’ may have lost its charm. If we fast forward to next season, how many of those upsets would be meaningful? The answer is none, because by going to a 24 team field for the championship, all of the highly-rankled losers, including Alabama which now has three defeats would likely get a spot in the playoffs. They would still be listed in the top 24.
So why are we now going to invest two-and-a-half hours to watch a marquee matchup that in essence has no meaning? I know, there will be 8 teams who get first-round byes, but that isn’t enough to get your blood boiling when you view one of these games.
It’s like watching a late-season NFL game where home field advantage for the first round is all they’re playing for.
Think of it, the college football playoff will have 10 more schools competing than those who make the post-season in the NFL.
Part of the fun of viewing a game such as Notre Dame-BYU, or Georgia-Alabama, or Indiana-Ohio State, is that we know the loser will suffer in the rankings and may have to struggle to earn a place in post-season.
You might be thinking the expansion to 24 schools will open the door to those teams who wouldn’t have made it to the 12 we have now. But that won’t be the case. All it will mean is that more schools from the power conferences like the Big Ten and SEC will squeeze in. Possibly even with 4 losses when you consider strength of schedule.
With the advent of 24 schools now fighting it out, the conference championship games, useless contests only played for more money will be eliminated. But the real money will come from the new playoff format. ESPN with a handshake agreement so far will cover them all and will pay $345 million annually for five years.
And lost in this new deal is the fact that those schools will play as much as five additional games. Tacked on to the 12-game regular season that could mean 17 games, which is what NFL teams play in regular season. Do you think all those additional games might affect the student-athletes in their quest to attain good grades? Forgive me, I couldn’t resist. That was all tongue-in-cheek.
But I feel the most harmful result of doubling the playoff field is that the regular season will be meaningless. Upsets like we had last weekend will be fun for the schools and all that, but they will become games played that will simply kill time until post-season.
And don’t think many of those early games will be meaningful as well.
I used to think the integrity of all sports was the chain that held it all together.
That is, until the gambling aspect took over, and smothered us every day.
So the integrity of sports went by the boards.
Now the lure of a meaningful contest was what we could cling to.
But that’s going away as well.
Money, and money for everybody involved is all that matters now.
A short note on the significance of officials calls in games, especially those coming down to the wire. If I discussed this topic every week it would make for a column that would put you asleep.
But there were two calls last weekend. On Saturday Notre Dame should have been given time for one last try to beat BYU. On Sunday, a terrible unnecessary roughness call against the Rams led to a game-winning field goal at the buzzer for the lowly Cardinals.
What made the two particularly offensive was the fact both were reviewed and neither one was overturned. What’s the point of reviewing calls by officials if those reviewing still can’t get it right? Something’s wrong here.
New college football playoff format
Auburn knocks off #1 Georgia
#2 Irish goes down to BYU
Bad call against Rams
