The new CFP is exactly what we’ve waited for
If the past few weeks haven’t convinced college football and its fans that the 12-team playoff system is infinitely better than the prior systems in place, I don’t know if anything ever will. They are either Georgia or Oregon fans who think that Notre Dame or Ohio State should have never been there or people nostalgic for an inferior way of determining the best team in the country.
Neither Notre Dame nor Ohio State would have been competing for a national title 15 years ago, when only the two top teams determined by an amalgamation of sports writers would be given the opportunity. Even last year, they would have both been on the outside looking in. And yet, given the gauntlet of teams that they not only defeated in the regular season, but had to go through in the new 12-team format, one would be hard pressed to argue that neither of them belong in the final contest of the season.
This is what college football fans have been wanting for decades. No more hypotheticals, no more “what if” scenarios. If you were one of the top teams this season, you had your shot. There will of course always be “snubs” no matter where you draw the line, but did anyone really think that Alabama or Miami were the best team in the country after the regular season? Under the prior fourteam system, there was too much splitting of hairs, too much shrugging off of teams just based on the perceived strength of the other teams they played.
But now, teams like Boise State and Arizona State got their opportunities. Teams like Tennessee, Ohio State or Notre Dame, that would have never made it under the old system but would have had solid arguments for belonging, also had their shot. And it is much harder to deny the results of head-to-head contests than speculations over hypothetical competitions.
This is especially important in a football landscape where two conferences have absorbed the Pac-12. Teams from the ACC, the Big 12 and the non-Power Five (though I guess it’s Power Four now) conferences deserve their shot, but so do more Big Ten and SEC schools, given the conferences’ now bloated size. Trying to unravel and select four teams from the mess that is now the college football conference landscape would be more difficult than ever and the 12-team system honestly could not have come at a better time.
And all of this is not to point out the number of exciting games that the playoffs have produced this year. While the first round had its fair share of blowouts, the quarter and semifinals have had some of the best games of the season. With many of college football’s best players opting out of bowl games in recent years to avoid injury (see Miami’s Cam Ward), this new system has created an environment where a lot of these players still have an incentive to play and it’s helped create even better college games in January.
Are there still flaws? Of course. Personally, giving the byes automatically to four conference champions rather than giving it to the four top teams in the college football playoff rankings at the end of the season feels a bit off. Does it potentially water down the importance of winning in the regular season? Maybe a little, but the margin for error is still extremely low.
But overall, this has been one of my favorite college football bowl seasons in a while and it is almost entirely due to the new playoff system. Sometimes giving teams, players and fans what they want just makes sense.
A C ERTAIN POINT OF V IEW
BY
NATHANIEL U NDERWOOD REPORTER
