If you're reading this article and are anywhere close to your mid-30s like me, there's a decent chance you jumped on the chance to buy EA Sports' reboot of a college football video game, 11 years after the glorious run of the original NCAA Football series came to an end.
I've been playing the new College Football 25 video game for an hour or two each day since the early release of the game on the afternoon of July 15. I'm loving the detailed gameplay and the recruiting in dynasty mode and still haven't touched the Road to Glory career mode.
But it was also quite interesting to begin a new "season" five weeks before such a different season gets underway.
I know a few people who, upon beginning their dynasty, shifted teams back to their old conferences, including restoring the Pac-12. I didn't want to do that. I wanted to see how things played out after this latest crazy realignment round — even knowing that the game might serve up some rather odd rankings from time to time.
Both simulated results of real-life football and reading about the buildup to the real-life season have confirmed to me that this is going to be quite a weird season and will take some time to get used to.
Perhaps the biggest "we're not in Kansas anymore" moment of the offseason for me to this point was the giant inflatable duck that Oregon and the Big Ten put in Indianapolis' White River for Big Ten Media Days.
Rivaling that stunt was another development from Big Ten Media Days outlining the conference's broadcast deal, which will show games all season on three of the four major over-the-air networks. That includes the noon ET slot on FOX and the 3:30 PM ET slot on CBS. And since the conference now includes Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA, there will be a few 11 PM ET kickoffs during the season.
Forget the Big Ten of Woody and Bo, this ain't even the Big Ten of Lloyd Carr and Barry Alvarez anymore.
There's also the rest of the former Pac-12 schools to get used to in different conferences. That includes Utah, who could be the highest-ranking Big 12 team in the preseason polls following the SEC departures of Texas and Oklahoma.
As the season goes on, I think the 12-team playoff race combined with new conference dynamics will be the most interesting, big-picture storyline to watch.
There's of course going to be controversy no matter what system is in place. That comes with the territory for what is always going to be a decentralized sport with so many different types of schools and teams competing in a 134-team division.
But I can definitely say that what happened last year with Florida State cannot happen in the 12-team system. There is going to be no universe in which a 13-0 Power Four conference champion is ranked outside of the five best conference champions by the College Football Playoff selection committee.
However, I'm prepared for a world where a 9-3 or 8-4 SEC or Big Ten team gets in ahead of a 10-2 ACC or Big 12 team because of schedule strength. When you look at just about any list of hardest projected schedules for 2024, SEC and Big Ten teams dominate the top 25. Would an 8-4 team like Oklahoma getting into the playoff over 10-2 Clemson or Kansas State be a bigger controversy than the Alabama/Texas/Florida State situation from last year? Probably not. But it might accelerate something like a CFP "Champions League" format where the power conferences are allocated a set number of spots.
The other huge point of controversy I anticipate happening concerns the Group of Five playoff spot. This is something that every fan should like, since it means the late 2000s Boise States or late 2010s UCFs of the world won't get left out with undefeated records. But it's going to come with some pitfalls - because it basically already has.
Last year, Liberty went 13-0 and won the Conference USA title with a schedule strength in the 120s or 130s depending on where you looked. They were deemed to be the best G5 team by the CFP committee at No. 23, just one spot ahead of 11-2 SMU, who played two power conference road games and ran through the American conference undefeated. Liberty going to the Fiesta Bowl instead of SMU, was a controversial notion, but a playoff berth wasn't on the line then.
It's going to be pretty hard for Sun Belt or American teams to run through their schedules undefeated. It might not be as difficult for a MAC or Conference USA team to go 13-0 pre-playoff.
One possibility I think is a bit overblown in the 12-team playoff is that a team who has effectively clinched being above No. 12 in the country — think 11-0 or 12-0 Georgia against Georgia Tech or Alabama last season — will rest everyone and throw away a win in a late-season game or conference championship game to be better rested for the playoff.
For starters, the four best conference champions will lock out the top four seeds and byes in the playoff. I'll never say never on this kind of thing, but it seems a bit preposterous that a team would make itself play an extra game two weeks after the conference championship when it has the chance to have a few weeks off before the quarterfinal. If a team rested starters in a pre-conference championship game — something only undefeated Big Ten or SEC teams would probably have the luxury of doing — it would then be headed for a road playoff game in the first round should it lose the conference title.
Ten years ago, I would have never imagined a Michigan/Oregon game would be played as a conference game in November. It's going to take me some time to get used to the new landscape of superconference college football, but I'm cautiously excited that it's here alongside a bigger playoff that will reward more teams for great seasons.
Leave a Comment