Yawn. Snore. Ugh! Welcome to the age of NFL 2.0.
PSU manhandled SMU (photo courtesy Onward State)
The first round of the new 12-team college football playoff offered spectacular scenes and atmospheres, yet the enormous gaps between the home and road teams easily overshadowed that grandeur.
Penn State 38 SMU 10.
Ohio State 42 Tennessee 17.
Texas 38, Clemson 24 (not too shabby in this round).
Indiana only lost to Notre Dame 27-17, but they trailed the entire game.
What to make of all this? For one, home-field advantage will be ENORMOUS going forward when plotting a season as an FBS coach. Is a first-round bye even worth it when you can get one last home game in front of the students, alumni, and local press? Yes, but only marginally. What matters more is who won, not where.
Big Ten, Big Ten, SEC, and Notre Dame are the last linchpins of realignment.
The playoff now will almost certainly expand to 14 teams. While the idea of a Power 4 is cute, it’s the Big Ten, SEC, and the Little Sisters of the Poor, AKA the Big XII and the ACC. The ACC lost badly in both playoff games this year, and the Big XII will need an unprecedented performance by nobody-saw-this-coming (AKA Arizona State) to knock off Texas in the Peach Bowl.
There is only room for one team from two conferences to get first-round byes (like the NFL), which is a significant home-field advantage in the playoffs (…like the NFL). See a pattern here? And, just like the NFL, two conferences will potentially monopolize a 14-team playoff.
The Fighting Irish and UNC are near-perfect fits to round out the Big Ten at (ironically) 20 teams. The SEC can pick apart the soon-to-be carcass of the ACC and pick up Miami, FSU, Clemson, and (most likely) Virginia Tech. Then, we can avoid silly exercises like letting SMU in over Alabama.
Silly us! We asked for parity in college football, but that ain’t gonna happen. The Big Boys eat first, and by the decade’s end, they will have their 40 football teams and 14-team playoff all to themselves.
Yawn. Snore. Ugh!
