The End of the Four-Team Invitational Presents Opportunity for Teams Outside of ‘The Logos’
The eagerly awaited 12-team playoff can’t get here soon enough.
Many have said from the beginning that a four-team playoff was flawed, something that was easy to see when there were five “Power” conferences. It was always possible for a deserving team to be left out.
Just throwing names out there from before conference realignment madness started, but it was always possible for, say Texas, USC, Georgia, Ohio State, and Clemson to all go undefeated and all win their conferences in a year.
All deserving. All big brands. All earning their way in. Except for one, who gets left at home.
You’ve never seen a true playoff in college football, it’s been an invitational for the last decade. Until you can tell a team, any team, what they can do to be guaranteed a spot before a single snap of football has been played, it isn’t a playoff. Winning your games wasn’t enough. Going undefeated and winning your conference wasn’t enough. It never was without the right helmet logo. If you weren’t one of the special few you had to be perfect and get some help on top of it. This year finally proved that, even with the right helmet, it’s not always guaranteed.
It was always silly and people argued every year about who got screwed, but the committee almost got away without having to show their bias until this year when they left out undefeated Florida State. There was always an argument for who got in over who but not this year. You can say what you want about Jordan Travis being out, but that doesn’t matter in my opinion. One of the teams with losses should’ve been out with the Seminoles in their place. And sorry SEC, Texas gets the nod over Alabama because Texas beat the Tide in their own stadium, and by double digits. It’s simple. Or should’ve been. However, the SEC has a lot of weight to throw around and the committee wasn’t going to leave them out.
The biggest flaw in the playoff hasn’t been it having just four spots though. It’s been something behind-the-scenes, something the people in charge don’t consider important but a lot of people, most people, do. The committee, the talking heads, and the columnists all have it wrong. Turn on your TV, dial in your radio, or pick up a paper or your phone and look into it. You’ll see the same line, or something close to it, repeated over and over and over:
“I want to see the best four teams and that’s what we got!”
Sounds great, right? The thing is, that’s not what the fans want. Do you go into the season thinking “Man, I can’t wait to watch the best four teams in the playoffs at the end of the season!” Of course, you don’t. You have a particular team you like over all the others. Most fans eventually get to where they want the best playoff matchups possible, that I’ll admit. I wanted the see the best four teams in the playoffs after my Cowboys lost to South Alabama because their already slim chances of getting in the playoffs were gone.
Before that, I wanted to see the Pokes. Fans in Manhattan wanted to see the Wildcats. There were people who wanted to see the Cyclones, Bears, or Cougars get a shot at the final four. Until the team you root for is eliminated, you don’t want to see the best four teams. You want to see three teams and your team.
That’s been the big issue over the past decade, and the thing these pundits have forgotten because to them, the game has become business. They are no longer truly fans, they are invested on a professional level. Has the current format been good for discussion, ratings, and clicks? Absolutely, but it’s also had about 100 fanbases feeling left out because there are maybe 30 teams every year that have any shot of getting in and about 12 of those are the same ones every year.
The Blue Bloods, the Big Dogs, The Old Money, The Logos.
Is that really the best system? No other sport does it that way. Every other level of football doesn’t do it that way. It’s been asinine the entire time and was set up the benefit the television networks more than the people who play the sport or their fans. Luckily things are changing!
Finally, there will be automatic qualifiers, which to the fans of teams that aren’t one of “The Logos,” is an amazing thing. For the first time next season, the fans of the little guys don’t have to worry about what anyone else does. Win your conference and you’re in. If you’re 12-1 with a loss in your championship game and 10-2 Bama gets in ahead of you as an at-large it will still sting but hey, you should’ve won your conference.
The 12-team model isn’t perfect either, I know this. The committee will still be involved in seeding and picking the at-large teams. There will still be arguments to drive the ratings of the talking heads and to get clicks for the websites. Discussing who got seeded wrong and why the 13th team should’ve got in over the 12th team will still be profitable. Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless aren’t going to have to stand in the bread line because of the new system.
But every coach at every school can say “Take care of business and you’re in” to their team at the beginning of fall camp and it will be true for the very first time. That, in itself, is a win for college football.
