The end is near for the four-team College Football Playoff, and on Dec. 3 it showed it’s going out with a big bang — and not in a good way.
Only in big-time college football — where for decades national championships were once awarded by sports writers and polls — can less than 1 percent of members FBS programs qualify for the playoffs and a section of fans are upset expansion is on the way.
Since its inception in 2014, there have been some CFP snubs with the most notable being 11-1 TCU in 2014 and 12-1 Ohio State in 2018.
The omission of 13-0 Florida State to this season’s CFP is undoubtedly the biggest snub of all. Here’s the thing coming from this corner — 12-1 Alabama was better suited for the fourth and final playoff spot over the Seminoles.
That doesn’t mean FSU fans don’t deserve sympathy today. Seminole Nation and college football fans everywhere deserved better. But the College Football Playoff deserved this embarrassment of leaving the ‘Noles on the outside.
For a decade, the FBS dragged its feet with its playoff format and now it’s paying the price as for the first time an undefeated champion from a Power 5 conference has been snubbed. It’s a surprise it didn’t happen sooner.
Help is finally on the way. That’s because the four-team CFP will officially be dead very soon, and thank goodness. It’s been a decade of ridiculousness not having at least an eight-team playoff.
On the way beginning next season is a 12-team playoff with the top four teams receiving first-round byes. The remaining eight teams will be seeded from 5 to 12, with the 12 seed playing at the campus of the 5 seed. Other matchups would be the 11 seed playing at the 6, the 10 at the 7 and the 9 seed at the 8.
Here’s how a 12-team playoff would have looked this season:
Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama — in that order — would be the top four seeds and have first-round byes. First-round matchups would be: 12 Oklahoma at 5 Florida State; 11 Ole Miss at 6 Georgia; 10 Penn State at 7 Ohio State; and 9 Missouri at 8 Oregon.
Old-school college football fans lament this, and the arguments against playoff expansion just don’t make sense. Here’s a few:
• The regular season will now be diminished.
• The regular season is the playoff. And my favorite …
• The regular season won’t be as important as the playoffs now.
Going forward, old-schoolers also lament the significance of big-time rivalry games such as Ohio State and Michigan. Many also insist conference championship games won’t ever be the same.
That’s fair but only to an extent. Had a 12-team playoff been in play this season, Georgia and Alabama could have both felt confident in making the playoff regardless of the outcome in the Dec. 2 SEC championship game. But to say the results of such games in the future will mean essentially nothing because both would have been playoff teams is ludicrous.
Try telling Alabama or Georgia players winning the SEC “means nothing.” Or that a first-round bye in the playoff “means nothing.” Or that securing a first-round home playoff game “means nothing.”
Rivalry games and championship games will always mean something, not “nothing.”
CFP expansion also means more games late in the regular season will have playoff implications. That’s not an opinion. It’s a fact. How an expanded playoff greatly devalues the regular season, rivalry games and championship games make zero to little sense.
First-round byes will be a huge factor starting next season. Having a week off will be an advantage all coaches will want.
Most importantly, a team such as 2023 Florida State won’t ever get snubbed from a playoff spot ever again.
Tell me how that’s a bad thing.
