Playoff Format is Flawed

Saturday night, during Tennessee’s demolition of Oklahoma, the ABC announcers calling the game talked about the upcoming 12-team playoff.

According to the talking heads, the plan is to take the five Power 4 (or 5, however they are categorizing it these days; things are changing so much in college football) conference champions, the top-rated Group of Five team and rest at-large teams.

The recurring thought in my head echoed as if I was bellowing in an endless canyon: unintended consequences…unintended consequences!

This plan is supposed to be based on fairness. Nonsense. Life ain’t fair, neither is football.

So here’s the disturbing part of the plan. The Power 4 teams will have their championships. Winners of those games receive an automatic bid. On the surface, that sounds reasonable. Let’s review for a moment, though.

A few years ago, when Clemson had a championship contender with Trevor Lawrence, it faced a Pittsburgh team that was something like 9-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference but qualified to play for the championship. Clemson won, of course, but, if I recall, it wasn’t the blowout one might expect.

So, let’s put that scenario in contemporary times. Let’s say Georgia, for example, is the top seed in the SEC, but somehow because of upsets and so forth, No. 23 Louisiana State, at 9-3, qualifies to play in the SEC championship. Let’s say Georgia has a bad night because of turnovers and/or injuries to key players and perhaps a couple of bad calls. As a result, LSU wins and is crowned SEC champ and gets a playoff bid it wasn’t expected to earn.

Georgia, at 12-1, gets an at-large spot in the 12-team playoff. Yes, Georgia had its chance to win the title game, so it’s on the Bulldogs for not getting it done. They picked the wrong night to have a bad game. That happens. If the two teams played nine more times, Georgia likely wins them all. But the committee penalizes Georgia for having a great year, yet stumbling in an exhibition game and LSU is rewarded for losing three games yet still winning the SEC title.

Really?

So, with the debacle of the SEC, let’s examine the Big 10. Ohio State is the top seed at 12-0. And, like the SEC, because of upsets during the regular season, let’s say unranked UCLA, at 8-4, somehow manages to qualify for the Big 10 prize (yes, this is extreme, but ride the wave with me here). Then, in the title game, UCLA plays out of its mind and Ohio State, as it often does, chokes away the Big 10 crown.

I think you see where I’m headed with this.

Now, because we have embraced this everybody-gets-a-trophy culture, two, perhaps more, get bids to the playoffs. We’ll just stick with two upset winners for the moment.

Then, let’s say Tennessee, at 9-3, and Miami (Fla.), at 10-2, get bumped from what seemed to be certain playoff bids.

Then, the committee says it has to take the highest-ranked Group of Five school, e.g. Memphis, Cincinnati, Bowling Green, Kent State (if Kent State qualifies for a spot, I’ll look for a star in the east), leaving maybe a pretty solid, decently ranked Alabama team out of the mix. Yes, I realize that I said the new format was based on fairness and, ironically, I said football ain’t fair, this really is unjust when it doesn’t have to be.

Then, we’ll have a consortium of talking heads and clueless sports writers clamoring for a 16-team playoff. That won’t be good enough, so, in a few years, they’ll lobby for 20 teams. Suddenly, the bowl games go bye bye. Let’s face it, the bowl system is essentially the NIT of college football. Many of the top players don’t even want to participate, so they opt out to prepare for the NFL draft.

I wish, somehow, that wasn’t allowed, but how can you prevent such a thing? A player rides the backs of his team to earn a shot at a high draft selection, then abandon’s them when it comes to playing in a meaningless bowl game.

If this doesn’t scream “unintended consequences,” I don’t know what does. We haven’t ever scratched the surface of NIL, but it certainly could change the dynamics of a roster.

What I’d like to see is the College Football Playoff committee pick the 12 best teams, irrespective of conference championships. How many times have we seen the two SEC finalists play in Atlanta, and Tennessee (or someone else) was ranked higher than both of those teams? It’s happened a few times.

When the Group of Five steps up and plays quality Power 4 teams, and wins those games, okay, give that top Group of Five team a shot. But if you pick someone like Memphis or Cincinnati and they load up on Miami of Ohio, Tulane, Texas-San Antonio, Georgia State and teams of that ilk, to me, that’s not good enough.

And, just like Cincinnati in the CFP, that Group of Five team will get crushed, predictably. Fans will scream that the GOF team didn’t belong, but the tone-deaf committee will keep feeding us substandard brackets with undeserving teams.

This year, things may work out fine, and, yes, it’s true, with the four-team format, the No. 5 team felt left out. With this new plan, the No. 13 team will feel slighted. This just foments a continuum of disappointment. That’s just part of the process.

But the playoff committee should focus on picking the best 12 teams, regardless of how the conference championships go.

Sadly, it seems the CFP has fallen prey to this everybody-gets-a-trophy mentality.

As a result, the fans get the booby prize.

Jim Steele is a correspondent for Richardson Media Group and can be reached on X @steelesports or via email at pressbox1@gmail.com.