Just Enjoy the Games Being Played
College Football Playoff is Always Full of Excitement
Instead of enjoying the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, there are complaints and whining about which teams should be in the tournament after SMU's losses to Penn State and Indiana's loss to Notre Dame.
But what makes College Football so great is the action on the field. When there are many games on a College Football Saturday, the blowouts get buried in the great games, but when there are not a lot of games, the blowouts stand out.
Unfortunately for those who watch the sport, the first round of the College Football Playoff continues the trend of blowouts, as we saw in the old four-team format. Except for six semifinal games, the rest were blowouts with a margin of victory over 20 points.
That was with four teams; now we have 12, which is what the world wanted because last season saw at least eight teams that could win the National Title. But all this crying and complaining by fans on social media, along with head coaches like Lane Kiffin, diminishes the fact that there are playoff games in college football on campus.
While we all want good games to watch, the atmosphere for these games has been electric. From the scenes in South Bend and Happy Valley to Austin, TX, to Columbus, Ohio, to have over 100,000 people in attendance for games in December on campus is special. That is what makes the sport so great.
But now, instead of enjoying it, we are criticizing a format that has been flawed since the first four-team playoff. Maybe the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) computer got it right after all, but that is another topic for another day.
The games on the field matter. Normally, we don’t see the top teams play for another week. Now, we are getting games that matter in December before the Holidays. That is huge for the sport. Everyone wants to see what happens. Can schools like Clemson match Texas? Will Ohio State lose again, and does that mean Ryan Day’s job is on the line?
Everyone wanted to see if Notre Dame could come up in the big moment or if James Franklin could win a big game. However, ESPN-driven and social media narratives drive the conversation, not play on the field.
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Remember, all we heard was that we needed more teams. Four isn’t enough. Well, it might have been enough. Again, maybe Alabama should not have lost to Vanderbilt and been blown out by Oklahoma. Ole Miss's losses to Florida and Kentucky do not help their cause.
And while everyone wants to point Indiana’s opponents, who did the Texas Longhorns play besides Georgia, who they lost to twice during the regular season?
Bigger does not mean better, especially when it comes to conference play. These mega-conferences create unbalanced schedules. Not every conference is created the same. Nor is every schedule.
But ultimately, the 12 best teams made it, and we must enjoy the action. Since this is the Made for TV Playoff, let’s not turn it into the SEC Championship Part 2.
And who says Alabama, Miami, Ole Miss, or South Carolina would have given Notre Dame or Penn State better games? All these teams are flawed in one way or another. All lost games, as previously mentioned, should not have.
Name brand shouldn’t matter. If that is the case, don’t play the games; pick the teams without a regular season. But what is the point of that when regular-season games are fun to watch?
Nobody will be happy with the format or when games are blowouts, no matter the format, four, six, eight, 12, or 16 teams. However, the issue is that there are never 12 teams that can actually win the National Title in College Football.
The games are so much fun to watch without the outside noise. A goliath could go down each week, and we have seen it this year multiple times. That is why we love Mach Madness, the upsets. But the regular season is where that happens, not in the playoffs.
Enjoy our current format before the sport gets ruined even more by expanding to 14 or even 16 teams.