I purposely waited to write about the opening weekend of the 12-team College Football Playoff because I knew that Sunday and Monday would be full of hot takes on every yell-at-each-other show on television and radio.
Now that everyone has calmed down let’s talk about the first weekend, how much of it falls on the committee, how much it puts on fans, and its unrealistic view of the College Football Playoff.
Let’s start with the committee.
When it’s time to make changes, the first one that needs to be changed is giving byes to the conference championship-winning teams. No offense to Arizona State and Boise State, but Texas and Ohio State shouldn’t have played on opening weekend. Sorry, Penn State, you deserved to play the Saturday noon game.
It’s a simple change to make when the time comes. Conference championship game winners can still get an automatic bid, but the guarantee shouldn’t go any further than that.
I can’t believe I’m in the expansion camp, but here we are. Once the initial contract is up, the College Football Playoff should expand to 14. That would have squashed any controversy over Alabama getting in, and the last spot could have gone to Ole Miss or Miami (FL).
The business relationship between college football and the traditional New Year’s Day bowls should continue.
It was cool watching teams earn home-field advantage in the initial weekend, and trust me, it was needed. No one wants to think about what the attendance numbers would have been if those games had been at neutral sites.
But I don’t have a problem with the quarterfinals being at the traditional bowl sites. It’s a good compromise between long-time business partners.
Fans must understand that the College Football Playoff isn’t the NCAA Tournament.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be upsets in the first round, but this is a numbers thing. For all the talk about upsets in the NCAA Tournament, the number of games played on the first weekend lends to some upsets.
Plus, it also depends on the definition of an upset.
In the NCAA Tournament, there are times when the seeds aren’t aligned with the betting favorite. So, the casual fan thinks that a smaller conference team winning is an upset even when that team was favored to win the game. Furthermore, all those games are at neutral sites.
Four games were played last weekend, and the team with the better seed hosted them. That’s a far cry from a neutral site game, and it’s a tall task for the road team.
Again, that doesn’t mean there won’t be upsets. Just don’t expect the College Football Playoff to be the NCAA Tournament.
Fans are also confused about the selection process.
The College Football Playoff isn’t the best 12 teams, just like the NCAA Tournament, which isn’t the best 68 teams.
As much as people say, “I know,” they act like they don’t. If this were the best 12 teams, Clemson and, possibly, Arizona State wouldn’t have been there. Those two spots would have found their way to Alabama and Miami (FL)/Ole Miss.
Last, let’s stop with Notre Dame joining a conference. The argument never made sense, and it makes even less sense now that conferences no longer have a round-robin schedule.
