After waiting patiently for many months, College Football is approaching. Things are getting hyped up as College Football Media Days are in full swing. The 2024-25 season will have a new wrinkle with the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff and new conference realignments in the SEC, Big 12, and Big 10. The Pac-12 does not exist anymore. However, with all the changes the sport has seen over the years, there is a feeling College Football is losing what made it so great. There is a debate surrounding who the best team in the land is.
College Football Was Great Because of Debate, Not Because of the Playoff
Everyone knows there are unintended consequences with every decision. We are seeing it with the new College Football Playoff. Everyone is so obsessed with having an outright winner that the decision-makers are losing sight of what made the sport so great.
“The honest thing about the playoffs and all this other stuff, I think again, it’s gotten away from what college football is all about,” College Football Expert Dennis Buttacavoli said. “I think, you know, this country has become so focused on having an outright winner championship, etc. But college football was great. I think the old bowl system was terrific when they had it. Where they didn’t have all these alignments with the bowls. The best teams got picked to the best bowls and you did have very good matchups.
And at the end, going into the bowl season, you had a legitimate four or five teams that have a legitimate shot to win the national championship,” Buttacavoli continued. “Again, results were dependent on how they did in the bowl game. The way it’s going now is that you only have the top two teams are the only ones that have a shot when they play the game. Now, with the new system, it will be the same thing. The best teams aren’t always necessarily going to get to go on this playoff system. It’s going to be subjective. It will be based a lot on believe or not on TV ratings.”
When the playoff first occurred, the debate was whether the smaller schools with a good season could participate. Remember, an elite system exists between the Power 5 and the non-Power 5. For example, say the debate was between Notre Dame and UConn, who was undefeated and had a great season. Despite having an undefeated season, Notre Dame had more drawing power. The Fighting Irish were going to draw the higher rating. This example played out with Central Florida the two years they went undefeated and Cincinnati.
While teams like TCU got into the playoffs, it took time for other small schools that had been left out to get in as they needed to prove to the committee they were worthy. With the Cincinnati Bearcats, the committee had no choice but to put them in. These teams got smoked, but they deserved to be there.
Playoff Should Be the Best Teams
With the new system, there will be five automatic bids based on conference champions and seven at large based on records. However, as former Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban stated during SEC Media Day, he wants to see the best 12 teams in the playoffs. Again, this is similar to Mr. Buttaccovoli’s line of thinking. They have the best teams. The sport used to have it. It is not that hard. But the committee and others are making it more complicated than it needs to be.
But again, this is a made-for-TV college Football Playoff—not a true college football playoff. Imagine if we had one of those. Then, the sport would have a true national champion. Stay Tuned for the next installment of Unintended Consequences regarding College Football and the playoffs here on Total Apex Sports.
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