40 names, games, teams, and features making news in college football (quarterback controversy sold separately in Ann Arbor and Clemson):
more dashes: successful debut | | Break time?
third quarter
better playoffs coming
In classic fashion, the college football playoffs whispered some incredibly big news to the jet engine last week.Expanding to 12 teams, is effective whenever sports can act together. (That’s 2026 at the latest, maybe ’25, maybe ’24.) This was announced late Friday, and we’re heading into a three-day weekend, a PR dead zone, a time when the US was busy enjoying the holidays, and college football. Did. Itself was busy trying to open the season.
Essentially, the CEOs of the universities that make up the CFP Steering Committee rushed an announcement that had been delayed for months due to the inexplicable hardline attitude of the commissioner. After waiting over a year to act on the plan presented as Almost completed in June 2021, apparently didn’t have to wait any longer. They cried after that, even though no one was listening.
The main question now is when the expanded CFP will come into force.
Roger Steinman/AP
But don’t let the ridiculous timing obscure the fact that this is a large and welcome development. It may be possible to save the framework of an endangered sport. Let’s count the positive developments produced by the 12-team playoff:
Meeting stability (21)While we can’t guarantee it, this does increase the chances of survival for the three reduced Power 5 leagues outside of SEC and Big Ten. Not to mention the Group of 5 league downstream. The top six league champions are guaranteed six appearances. That means the ACC, Big 12, and Pac-12 champion would have to make a 12-team playoff each season, and his second playoff entrant from those leagues is possible as well.
This is an injection of hope, even if there is a revenue split between Power 2 and all other companies. If schools can compete for national titles at geographically and traditionally meaningful meetings, is there any reason to go on long trips for beatdowns in giant leagues? must be important. For fans and players alike. This is your chance to compete for the league championship and national championship without the school selling its soul.
This also derails (or at least delays) one doomsday scenario in which the SEC and Big Ten hold their own mini playoffs, and then the winners meet for a national championship that isn’t truly national in scope. Football doesn’t need an NFC-AFC postseason. A melting point playoff is required.
Sustaining excitement for more teams (22)One of the by-products of the four-team playoff was seeing the potential field of competitors dwindle to perhaps six or seven (no more than eight) teams by November. It was exciting, but the scope was small. This will increase the number of teams playing in non-bowl games in the second tier in the final month of the season.
And, especially for the underdogs, it brings the conference championship game to life.
Larger pool of schools with ‘successful’ seasons (23)Much like college basketball, participating in tournaments is a mark of effectiveness for many schools. Remember 2020. The Texas A&M team took him one loss and he finished fifth. It was certainly a good year, but we didn’t get a chance to fight for the title. Think about last season: Baylor and Pittsburgh had every reason to celebrate and cherish their Big 12 and ACC wins, respectively, but they had more to do with the CFP than the bowl game that simply ended the season. How exciting would it have been to move on? ?Sometimes the best players sit?? Pitt QB Kenny Pickett hasn’t opted out of his game in the playoffs like the Peach Bowl. (And unless you’re Brian Kelly, no coach opts out of a playoff game for a career change. At least one wants it.)
Biggest On-Campus Games Ever (24)In December, teams seeded 5-8 will host teams seeded 9-12. And it will be glorious. The bowl cannot replicate the energy and noise that accompanies campus home games.
In 2020, Cincinnati would have hosted Georgia in the first round of the playoffs. It would have been the biggest home game in school history. Last year, Baylor and Mississippi would have hosted a playoff game that created an epic scene. These aren’t the vacation resort economies of Florida and Arizona, they save on fan travel costs and help the local economy, while at the same time recruiting academic and sporting core figures.
The next step is to turn the quarterfinals into campus home games instead of bowling them over. Once a 1-4 seeded team sees the benefits that hosting his playoff games brings to less seeded programs, they will want to host them too.
A group of 5 people are seated at a table (25)of Cincinnati Breakthrough playoff advance Last year showed it was possible to make a four-team field in a Group 5 program, but the deck remains heavily stacked to make it happen. In the future, someone from G5 will create a bracket every year. These meetings gave a new reason to dream.
Prize money for players (26)Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said over the weekend —Cut players with increased financial windfall From the expanded playoffs. Not only is it right, but it has some ancillary benefits for the sport. Playoff share is another reason top players don’t opt out of the postseason to protect their draft status, and many It can provide an alternative revenue stream to the NIL/collective money panicking coaches and administrators.
Money That Could Really Run Down To Someone Other Than King Football (27)Can the incoming tide lift all college competition boats – including Olympic competition? If your ongoing lament is that the athletic department is underfunded, well, there’s a lot of new cash here. Instead of funding a football analyst position or a tenth recruiting assistant, this money will help ensure the survival of other sports on campus.
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And the drawbacks of the extended playoffs:
too many games (28)If a 5-12 seeded team advances to the championship game and plays in the league title game, that’s a 17-game season. Even teams that get first-round byes are looking at a 16-game slate. This is the NFL workload excluding NFL payroll. Another reason why playoff contestants share revenue.
Too long season (29)In the current situation, the season is already nearing the finals in December, and it’s stretched well into January for the two teams. That number has grown and the title contestants will be engaged for most of the month. It invades the spring semester—remember academics?—two extra layers of playoffs ruining the schedule for final exams in the fall semester.
This also further complicates the rest of the soccer calendar. The December contract term will dictate so many other movements in the sport that it should simply be postponed, if not eliminated entirely. You can continue to engage in your current job through the postseason.
Reduce regular season (30)This is already a common fan lament and will only grow with the reduced load placed on each regular season game. The Game of the Century meeting in November isn’t really Game of the Century. Because the higher-ranked him two teams are likely to both extend the playoffs. All games are still important, but they may not be as important.
The best regular season in sports is kind of like a setup now, but it’s setting up what could be the best postseason in sports. No one laments that the NCAA Tournament is bigger than the regular basketball season.
more dashes: successful debut | | Break time?
