So, what’s everybody planning for Saturday’s College Football Week One Extravaganza? Every school’s in action, and a whole lot of the big dogs are taking on each other: Texas-Ohio State, Alabama-Florida State, LSU-Clemson, just to name a few of the games that we’ve all circled in bright red ink for months now.
While you’re meal-planning for the day (biscuits for Lee Corso’s final College GameDay, sandwiches for Longhorns-Buckeyes, apps for Tide-Noles, grill work for Tigers-Tigers) keep this in mind: this day is a glorious one … but it could be so much better. And, sadly, it likely will get so much worse.
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Why? Because every iteration of the College Football Playoff devalues the regular season a bit more … starting with Week One.
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Consider, for instance, any of those three marquee games listed above. (Or Baylor-Auburn. Or South Carolina-Virginia Tech. Or Tennessee-Syracuse. Whichever you prefer.) Whoever loses this weekend will still be very much in the playoff conversation, since the loss will be a non-conference one.
The days when a college football team needs to go undefeated to have a chance at a championship are gone forever. One, two, maybe even three losses will still be enough to get you into the playoff bracket … and from there, who knows what can happen? You might even have something as wild as, oh, an 8-seed winning it all.
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You know what all this — diminished regular season, just make the playoffs, baby — sounds like, don’t you? It sounds a whole lot like Sunday football, where the week-to-week drama is enjoyable but not crucial.
And “crucial” is the lifeblood of college football. Every game ought to matter, every game ought to be a referendum on your season and your postseason fate. It’s obvious we’re never going back to a poll-driven model for a championship, or even a four-team one … but right now, with 12 teams in the mix, we’re at the outermost point where the regular season has any meaning at all.
On Saturday, Arch Manning will lead No. 1 Texas into the Columbus to take on No. 3 Ohio State, in a heavyweight Week 1 matchup. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
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Consider: If the playoff bracket last year expanded to 16, as now seems inevitable, you would have had as many as four three-loss teams in the playoffs. (Alabama, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Clemson.) Three losses! That total would’ve been enough to get coaches fired in the olden days; now it gets them into the postseason.
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And let’s not even consider the absurdity of the Big Ten’s little feint at a 24- or 28-team playoff, executed with all the suave grace of a middle-schooler trying to ask a classmate for a date. (“If I asked you, would you go out with me? No? Uh … never mind.”) A playoff that large would put a four-loss team on the margin of a spot in the playoffs, and in no sane world is an 8-4 team worthy of a playoff berth.
None of this should take away from your enjoyment of Saturday. It’ll be one of the best college football days in years, maybe the finest slate of Week One — usually reserved for cupcakery — we’ve ever seen. Every single player on every single team will be playing for pride, for honor, for those school colors on their uniform, and that’s worthy in itself. (Plus, you know … tailgating.)
But when the stakes of the regular season are diminished, eventually the interest is too. Need proof? Check out the difference in college basketball viewership numbers between the regular season and March. The students on campus may be thrilled to check out games in November, December and January, but nobody else is.
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Football’s a long way from that sad fate, but expanding the playoff pool to reward mediocrity is a quick path toward it. The problem for college football is, money will trump tradition, honor, competitiveness and common sense, every single time. And there’s no sign that the people who watch the game from a skybox — and, to be fair, the players who cash massive NIL checks — have a deep interest in preserving tradition when there’s more money to be made.
