One of my favorite podcasts of 2024 was the "Who Killed College Football?" pod by Steven Godfrey and Ryan Nanni. It investigated the "culprits" of why college football is in the position it is now in an eight-episode run. A whole lot of college football history I had no idea about is included in the pod, so I highly recommend blazing through the episodes if you've got some time.
Ultimately, the title was a bit tongue in cheek, as people have been foretelling the death of the sport for well over a century now. However, it didn't ignore how college football went from regionally-based to a massive, nationwide business and the issues the sport faces today.
I couldn't help but think of the historical sky-is-falling attitude the podcast discussed over the last three weeks when teams were being picked for the first 12-team College Football Playoff and its blowout-heavy first round.
Indiana had its best season in school history and took advantage of a soft Big Ten schedule to rack up an 11-1 record. To me, the fact that the Hoosiers pretty much blew out everyone except Michigan and Ohio State told me they were worthy of a playoff spot. Getting blown out by Notre Dame doesn't change my thoughts on that. But you'd think Indiana only beat MAC teams if you listened to ESPN post-game.
Similarly, SMU had its best season in 40 years, nearly won the ACC, and played two Power 4 teams out of conference. They hung with Penn State for about a quarter but coughed up the ball and didn't have enough talent up front to hang with a top-five team. That doesn't mean the Mustangs were bums or should have been left out for a 9-3 SEC team that was never in conference title contention.
Of course, it's true that we saw about 2.5 quarters of football in the first round of the CFP where the game was in doubt. But we also sat through years of blowouts in the four-team playoff era, and those games didn't even have the atmosphere of a home crowd. There were tons of blowout title games in the BCS/Bowl Alliance era, too!
In fact, one of these — the 1996 Fiesta Bowl — was on Big Ten Network as a "classic" the other day when I was scrolling through channels on YouTube TV. In case you need a refresher, this was the peak achievement of the '90s Nebraska dynasty, a 62-24 demolition of previously unbeaten Florida. It was part of a 26-game winning streak from 1994-96 and a 60-3 win-loss stretch from 1993-97.
Would the talk after that Fiesta Bowl have been more about Florida somehow not belonging instead of Nebraska's achievement if the same circumstances and bowl system were in place today?
Speaking of the bowl system, the non-playoff games have taken on even less importance this year, but many of them have still been quite fun. (Side note: We need the Pop-Tarts Bowl in the playoff going forward.) I don't really have anything to add about bowl season that I didn't cover in the pre-transfer portal world of 2016.
However, I greatly appreciated the perspective of UConn coach Jim Mora, who has been wishing his departing transfers well and was fully supportive of his players in the portal suiting up in the Fenway Bowl.
To me, appreciating the accomplishments of teams like Clemson who almost never use the portal and those who were almost wholly portal-built like Indiana is not an inconsistent position as a fan and observer. We don't need to be holier than thou about players leaving or not leaving when some coaches have been bolting with less loyalty than the players for decades.
And that's also not to say that the current portal can't be improved. Backup QBs on playoff teams without injuries shouldn't be sitting out the biggest games because of the compressed portal timeline at the end of the season.
Speaking of improvements, another talking point I saw from the first week of the new CFP was that automatic byes for conference champions need to be removed next year. Can we get through a whole 11-game playoff before we make that call? It's almost as if people have assumed that Boise State and Arizona State, who are each double-digit underdogs after earning byes, have no shot against Penn State and Texas, respectively.
Blowouts happen — just as they did in the four-team playoff, BCS, and Bowl Alliance eras. But dismissing teams like Indiana and SMU for daring to earn their spots misses the point: the expanded playoff offers opportunities for programs to shine on a national stage. Instead of wringing our hands over imperfections across the entire sport, let's celebrate the stories that make college football special and be honest about how things can be improved.
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