An unlevel playing field?
College playoff includes the most deserving teams, but that may change
Associated Press photo
The surest sign that the College Football Playoff format’s new setup won’t last long is the fact that Alabama wasn’t included.
To be clear, under the current criteria, the Crimson Tide didn’t deserve a spot, even in an expanded 12-team field. They lost three times, including inexplicable defeats to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, each of which finished 6-6, and no team with more than two setbacks qualified. And Alabama played only one nonconference game against a Power 4 opponent (Wisconsin).
Plus, Nick Saban’s towering presence no longer exists to persuade (or coerce) the committee members to include the Tide, as they did last year to the detriment of unbeaten Florida State.
Actually, the committee did a pretty good job of including the 12 most deserving teams. Realize, though, that the 12 most deserving and the 12 best teams don’t completely overlap, just as the NCAA basketball tournaments wouldn’t include Marist or Texas A&M-Corpus Christi if invitations were based on talent alone.
But those with power rarely give it up voluntarily. The Big Ten and SEC are the 800-pound gorillas in the college landscape, and even though they received a combined seven of the 12 bids, they want more. That’s why the current format has less stability than the Syrian government.
The fact that SMU got in and Alabama didn’t surely ruffled SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s feathers. And Boise State and Arizona State receiving first-round byes — and, arguably, an easier path to the semifinals that unbeaten Oregon — probably didn’t sit well at Big Ten headquarters.
Contractually, college football’s twin towers are stuck with the present format for this season and next. You can be sure, though, that both leagues are already lobbying for future changes that are more Goliath-friendly, like eliminating the automatic placement of conference champions as the top four seeds (with accompanying first-round byes).
If they don’t get what they want, the Big Ten and SEC could decide to take their ball and leave, perhaps holding an eight-team playoff among themselves. That would offer some superb football, but it would subtract much of the fun.
One of the great joys of college sports — even in the modern NIL era, where some athletes will earn more than their university presidents — is the chance for chaos. UMBC over Virginia in basketball, Northern Illinois over Notre Dame in football.
SMU and Indiana aren’t exactly midgets, but they are underdogs that will garner some national rooting interest against more established programs in the playoffs.
Ask most football fans what comes to mind when they think of Boise State, and they’ll say the Broncos’ 2007 Fiesta Bowl upset of Oklahoma, when tailback Ian Johnson scored the game-winning touchdown in overtime, then proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend on national TV. That’s the sort of heartwarming story that you won’t find in the NFL, unless you’re a Taylor Swift fan.
By the way, this year’s Boise State team has a player who might get drafted before any of the stars from other playoff teams. That’s Ashton Jeanty, the Barry Sanders-style running back who might just break Sanders’ NCAA Division I single-season rushing record. But if the SEC and Big Ten get their way, his team might not even get into the playoff.
Certain college sports (and their playoffs) keep getting bigger and bigger. Let’s hope there will still be room for the little guys in the future.