As we travel deeper and deeper into the college football playoff era in the FBS, programs all over the country are desperately trying to curate schedules that are the most manageable they can be to make the postseason tournament.
They’re also making a mockery of what used to be the greatest regular season in all of sports.
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We just witnessed USC tuck its tail and run away from Notre Dame, and there have been plenty of other programs which are following suit. The Texas Longhorns are one of those programs that cried about missing the playoffs last year because of a loss to a top team (Ohio State) while ignoring the other losses against teams they were favored against. Texas just cancelled the Arizona State series, and now there’s a chance they cancel the upcoming series against Notre Dame.
“Everything is fluid right now because I don’t know exactly,” Del Conte said when asked if Texas will still play Notre Dame in 2028 and 2029.
The Longhorns would travel to South Bend, Ind., for a game with the Irish in 2028, and Notre Dame would return the favor and come to Austin in 2029. It is still on the books.
According to Texas athletic director, Chris Del Conte, the playoff picture is the issue, and most importantly, the number of teams in the field.
So… is Texas afraid? Yes — they really are, and Del Conte makes it perfectly clear:
“However, the postseason is where you want to be. If you, in my belief, expand the playoff, you strengthen regular season. All of a sudden people are not afraid to have big games in the regular season. You can lose three games and still get in.”
It doesn’t matter if he’s right or not, the fact that this is the line of thinking athletic directors around the country are using to justify a bunch of fluff is a disease — and the college football is hurting because of it. Even if the format goes to 24 teams and programs are less afraid to play big games, it will never be the same (or even remotely close). It wasn’t just about two highly ranked teams battling on the field, it was the stakes that such a game held (see Notre Dame vs USC 2005 for such a game).
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It’s all over, and now we just have teams running scared to a playoff they’ll likely never win.
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