When thinking about postseasons in the two biggest revenue college sports, part of the beauty of March Madness is that any qualified team is a set number of games away from a national title at the start of the event.
It doesn't matter if you're Duke, Bowling Green, or Mississippi Valley State. If you're in the dance, a national championship is six or seven wins away, and you're crowned champions of a division that spans over 5,000 miles from Maine to Honolulu.
At several times in the 21st century, the prospect of a lesser-known school in the college sports world winning the basketball title wasn't merely theoretical. Butler was one win from a national championship twice under Brad Stevens. George Mason, Wichita State, and Loyola were two wins away from a title during Final Four runs. Even 15th-seeded St. Peter's was three wins away four seasons ago.
Top-level college football has never really been as kind to the "little guy" in structure or results. But after years of undefeated teams coming out of non-power conferences never got a shot to play for a consensus national title, the dam broke a bit with Cincinnati qualifying for a four-team playoff in 2021. Then, it was seemingly knocked down entirely when the 12-team playoff was established last year, guaranteeing at least one spot for the best Group of 5 (soon to be Group of 6) champ.
In my mind, while recognizing that I have a bit of a bias as a graduate of a G5 FBS school, the spot for the "bottom" conferences in the top division of college football wasn't really up for debate when the playoff moved from four to 12 teams. With expansion, it was only reasonable to grant a playoff path to half the teams in FBS who had traditionally been shut out.
In the days since this year's playoff selection, college football headlines have been dominated by Notre Dame's sour grapes about being left out, the inclusion of Miami and Alabama in the field, and the stunning immolation of the Sherrone Moore era at Michigan.
But bubbling right under those headlines was some chatter that Tulane and James Madison weren't worthy of their playoff spots as two of the best five ranked conference champions.
Excuse me?
Following the train of thought that claims the 12-team playoff should be contested by the top 12 teams in the CFP rankings means that conference championships are effectively immaterial and that Notre Dame and BYU are more worthy of spots this year than Tulane and JMU.
Notre Dame and BYU each had two chances to beat 2025 playoff teams. They went a combined 0-4. We know what they are and are not by this point. And I'm supposed to want them in a playoff over teams that won their conferences on the field? I can't reconcile that.
My opinion on this won't change if Tulane and JMU each lose 55-0 on Saturday. Conferences need to mean something, and it wasn't JMU's fault that the ACC has byzantine tiebreakers that allowed Duke to claim the league title.
The excuse of "G5 teams are only in the playoff so the CFP doesn't get sued" is grating as well. If the Power 4 tried to lockout the G5/G6 while trying to maintain the FBS system, they should get sued. We have antitrust laws in this country, and a P4 lockout would be a clear example of cartelistic behavior.
But this legal hypothetical assumes that the 10 conferences making up FBS in 2026 will stay as one division in the future. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that's the case.
A "super league" of college football that's just the Power 4, Notre Dame, and any well-funded G6 breakaways might not be too far away. This would theoretically split Division I into three separate competitions, and would be terrible for fans and players. It would also probably sign the highest echelons of the sport away to private equity interests.
But I don't want to be totally doom-and-gloom quite yet. Because the beloved March Madness brackets we now take for granted weren't always so adored and egalitarian.
Before Princeton nearly stunned Alonzo Mourning, Charles Smith, and Georgetown in the first round of the 1989 NCAA tournament, there was talk of eliminating automatic bids for some Division I conferences only four years after the tournament expanded to 64 teams.
Even though it took 29 more years for a No. 16 seed to defeat a No. 1, Princeton-Georgetown showed that less-heralded teams could compete with the biggest brands and stacked rosters.
I wonder if we're in a similar spot in college football. It sounds drastic, but Tulane, JMU, or a G6 representative in 2026 or 2027 may need to give a well-funded name brand football program a hell of a fight — or win — if we want to avoid the eventual uniformity of an all P4 playoff or division by the end of the decade.
Leave a Comment