The College Football Playoff is Getting Ridiculous

News was released yesterday that the college football playoff is officially expanding to 24 teams. I should be happy about this. This means more college football, which is my favorite sport to watch. This means the season could last longer. This means more parity and more chances for my favorite team, Michigan, to make the playoff. But, I kind of hate this to be honest with you.

This is going to kill what makes college football the best sport in the world, the drama. Every game counts in college football. Every game matters. It used to be that, if you wanted to get to the national title, you had to win every game, or only have one loss in your column. Teams needed to win eleven or twelve games a year just to have a chance to be considered for the title game. Conference championships were also the most important games of the season. you had to win that to be considered for the playoff or title game. Championship weekend could make or break your entire season. And that is what I have loved about college football since I was a kid. It was the most dramatic show on tv. I look forward to every Saturday game. It has always been appointment viewing for me.

Now none of that matters with this expansion. Conference championships are officially gone. This was my first inkling that I was not going to be a fan of the expansion. I love conference championship weekend. Like I said, that weekend of games would be the season defining games. I would watch as many conference title games as I could, just to see who was going to make it to the big stage and who would be left out. I always looked most forward to the Big 10 title game, especially when Michigan was playing in it, because it was always the last game of that weekend. That is gone now. Those games are not happening anymore. They will be of a bygone era after this season and that stinks.

The expansion also means that regular season games are going to mean far less than they have ever before. It used to be that an undefeated season was the sign of who was the best of the best. That is how it should be. If you win every game on your schedule, you should have a shot at a major bowl game or the four team playoff, when that was still a thing. Now it doesn't matter. There will be more 7-5 teams vying for a playoff spot now in the new 24 team playoff. Michigan, as I wrote about yesterday, is having one of the worst seasons in the history of the program, but in the new 24 team playoff, if they were to win out, they would have a legit shot at being in the field, with a final regular season record of 8-4. That is not the standard that should be set. I feel like you should have, at the very least, double digit wins to be considered for the playoffs. But now, especially if you are a team from the power 4 conferences, 7 or 8 wins will be enough to make a case for an at-large bid. We will have teams that are 4-4 midway through the season, but due to conference affiliation and strength of schedule, that will have a legit argument to make the playoff field. That is not the way it should be.

I had my issues with the days of the AP and Coaches poll picking the national champs. The BCS era had the most problems of all. The four team playoff was rad, but it seemed to always find a way to leave out the group of 5 teams if they could. And the last two years of the 12 team playoff have been underwhelming. The stakes aren't high enough. Now that is going to be all gone with the new 24 team playoff.

This is the death knell for college football. It has been a long time coming, but this feels gross. College football has always been a minor league for the NFL, but now that is more relevant than ever. And let's not get it twisted in the least, this is all about money, and that is the biggest problem I have with all of this. This is a clear money making endeavor. Look at March Madness. The NCAA tournament makes more money than they can print, and college football saw that and wanted in, no matter how watered down it is going to make the game I used to love. Sure there will be more games, but that means more commercial breaks and more ad time for car companies, political ads when the time necessitates it and dumbass fast food restaurants selling some nonsense. Games have been getting harder and harder to watch because of how long they take. Games now last four hours. Three hours used to feel fast. But now the games just drag on and on and on. Every break in action seems to head to a commercial break. I took my son to a game this season, and he grew so weary of the red hat guy whenever he walked onto the field, which felt like every single chance he could. That is only going to increase with more teams and more games being added to the season now.

I should like this, I know I should. And I know myself, which means I will watch these games, much to my chagrin. But I don't like this and I think it is going to severely water down the game I used to love. Time will tell how I actually feel about this, but as of right now, as of the news becoming official, I am not onboard with the expanded playoff, and all that comes along with it. It is not for me. 

Ty 

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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