r/CFB • u/turnfourag Texas A&M Aggies • Paper Bag • 8h ago
Discussion Please help me understand one thing about playoff expansion - not caring about beating your rivals.
I am not trying to come off as critical of any fans. I just need help understanding something from the perspective of fans of perennial powers.
One issue I see fans having is the playoff expansion makes them question if they even care about beating their rivals anymore. It is not a common issue I am seeing, but it has caught me off guard the handful of times I have seen it. Specifically, I have seen an Alabama fan question if they care about the Auburn game and an Ohio State fan questioning if they care about the Michigan game moving forward.
While both Ohio State and Alabama are in a position to likely make the playoffs every year, I still don't get it.
The sentiment is those games carried extra emotional weight of a win propelling a team into the playoffs and a loss eliminating that chance. I totally understand that feeling may be lost.
But is that the end all be all about caring when you play your rival? If the emotions of playing your rival is only rooted in something being at stake for a championship for someone to care, then we have lost the meaning behind rivalries in the first place imo.
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u/ManiacalComet40 Missouri Tigers • Big 8 8h ago
If you don’t care about beating your rival, you’re not rivals.
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u/SaintsSooners89 Red River Shootout • Oklahoma 8h ago
The only redemption for not beating your rival is winning a Natty, even then its a nasty stain on an otherwise perfect season.
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u/HabaneroEnjoyer Alabama Crimson Tide 8h ago
I promise you no Bama fans care about losing 2017 iron bowl now
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u/turnfourag Texas A&M Aggies • Paper Bag 8h ago
I agree. I don't understand, outside of being an impulsive overreaction, why I am seeing a handful of fans say they no longer care about their rival.
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u/CTeam19 Iowa State Cyclones • Hateful 8 7h ago
I was going to say. Iowa State and Iowa Wrestling represented 18 national titles in 23 years from 1965 to 1988 and you bet your ass they cared about the rivalry in the regular season.
Hell, in D3 Wrestling Wartburg College and Augsburg College decided after winning so much on the national stage with 17 titles and 15 titles a piece with the rest of D3 having 20 total to have their own in Season match. Not to mention, other than 2025 when Johnson & Wales (RI) tied Wartburg, every National Title since 1995 has been won by those two schools.
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u/incrediblystiff Michigan Wolverines • Paper Bag 8h ago
No amount of conference realignment and playoff expansion will stop me from hating ohio state.
Added bonus of years like 2024 when they were able to win a national championship but couldn’t beat David Warren and a coach who was more interested in banging his assistant and gooning than coaching football
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u/WallyMetropolis Texas Longhorns 6h ago
Wouldn't it have been even better if that game had just ended OSU's season?
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u/incrediblystiff Michigan Wolverines • Paper Bag 5h ago
Yes but I would also like to never hear about Nebraska claiming a natty because they didn’t have to play against any other undefeated teams all season :)
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u/March4th2026 Oklahoma Sooners 7h ago
Beating Texas hits like crack, yall should try it sometime
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u/turnfourag Texas A&M Aggies • Paper Bag 7h ago
Maybe one day. We've beaten them 7 times in my lifetime, but only 3 times during a time where I actually understood football.
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u/Low-Grocery989 Villanova Wildcats 8h ago
If you need championship implications to care about your rivalry game, then you don't hate your rival.
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u/TwoLiterHero UNLV Rebels • Valdosta State Blazers 8h ago
If your rival doesn’t cost you anything for 20 years, new fans will hate them less. You act like rivalries were just assigned and not forged over decades of taking each others opportunities
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u/kyrev21 Kentucky Wildcats 7h ago
That’s just not true at all. Kentucky upset Louisville in 2016 and we still talk about it today because Lamar won the heisman a few weeks later. Not only did he hit the heisman pose in the game he also fumbled. Louisville had already lost to Houston the previous week and fell out of the playoff race. Our win meant nothing for the playoff but it meant everything to us
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u/Vocen Oregon Ducks 7h ago
Oregon and Washington have barely ever been good at the same time. The series history is one team whooping the others' ass, primarily Washington at first, then us for a while, and now some short runs of each in the last decade. There's only been a couple years where the game actually cost the opponent something. There's still plenty of hate. I don't think "taking each other's opportunities" is some requirement for how rivalries work.
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u/unfortunateavacado24 Florida Gators 8h ago
Yeah. They two redeeming qualities of the past two seasons are beating FSU twice and being the ugly loss that kept Ole Miss and Texas out of the playoffs. Upsets won't feel as sweet if they don't mean as much.
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u/Rolli_boi Texas Longhorns • Vanderbilt Commodores 8h ago
Georgia Florida in the 2000’s was almost a requirement to win if you wanted to win the East…now it kind of feels empty.
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u/chaser676 Ole Miss Rebels • Egg Bowl 8h ago
being the ugly loss that kept Ole Miss and Texas out of the playoffs
What's old is new again
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u/WallyMetropolis Texas Longhorns 6h ago
Exactly. It won't change how I feel, but what about the next generation?
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u/dustincb2 Oklahoma Sooners 8h ago
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING feels better than beating your rival and ruining their shot at a title
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u/QWERTYUIOPquinn Wayne State (NE) • Nebraska 8h ago
Shoot, that’s exactly what all the Nebraska-Oklahoma games were in the Big 8. Most of the time, whoever wins goes to the Orange Bowl and is the championship contender based on if they win that bowl
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u/dustincb2 Oklahoma Sooners 7h ago
The first football game I was lucid enough to remember was OU vs. Nebraska in 2000 and was my immediate thought when I typed out that original message. That game probably decided the championship that season.
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u/ManiacalComet40 Missouri Tigers • Big 8 7h ago
While that was true, there were also great, hate-filled Big 8 rivalries between teams with zero championship aspirations whatsoever.
The notion that bad teams can’t be rivals is dumb.
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u/QWERTYUIOPquinn Wayne State (NE) • Nebraska 7h ago
Absolutely. Everyone in the Big 8 had a rival or two, whether the games had any bowl implications or not.
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u/turnfourag Texas A&M Aggies • Paper Bag 8h ago
I agree. I don't understand, outside of being an impulsive overreaction, why I am seeing a handful of fans say they no longer care about their rival.
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u/ACCBiggz Florida State Seminoles • Tiffin Dragons 6h ago
why I am seeing a handful of fans say they no longer care about their rival.
I don't know who has been saying that (as in: who they support, their reasons, etc.). However, it's not difficult to see how rivalries will be impacted.
As a FSU fan (taking things how they are right now as if they'll remain static to illustrate the point), unless Miami or Florida has a significant down year then we should never beat them again. They're just on a different level financially, allowing them to compete. Even with a competent head coach who can recruit, the ceiling on FSU is an 8-10 win team with those two losses to Miami and Florida, who should always have a competitive advantage.
That is going to impact the rivalries.
From a fan's perspective, it's going to take time... a generation or two. For current players, we'll see the shift more radically. On one front as free agents who don't have the entrenched emotions, and the other as really just disliking the other strong team that gives them problems. The rivalries over time will likely be more like NFL rivalries instead of the old collegiate ones with regional passion because that long-tenured feeling won't be there, it'll just be a connection to the brand for the fans.
In the hypothetical scenario where nothing changes, FSU is likely to develop a new rivalry with someone on their level. But those historical rivalries with Miami and Florida will slowly go by the wayside due to the inequities, causing people to "not care".
A rivalry like Michigan-Ohio State will continue because they are on equal footing, fighting for the same things. Those kinds will continue with a little shifts due to the nature of the sport. However, some will undoubtedly see changes even in outright loss of a rivalry - that will be replaced with another. It'll just happen over a long period of time.
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u/TheAnswer310 Miami Hurricanes 8h ago
Part of the joy in beating your rival is ruining their season.
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u/_moosleech Miami Hurricanes • MAC 7h ago
What percentage of rivalry games is that?
Not trying to be a dick, but I think folks are massively over-emphasizing how many rivalry games "end" one teams season.
Most teams are not Alabama and Ohio State. And even when they are (see Miami, 2000) it doesn't always actually end their season.
This feels like folks pretending something was actually a lot more widespread than it is. Shit, despite being two schools with ample historical success, what is the last season where the Miami-FSU game directly impacted the other team's season/cost them a shot at a title?
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u/Cdog923 Nebraska Cornhuskers 7h ago
If they have a playoff spot secured, why would Ohio State risk a major injury in a meaningless game, positioning-wise? Same question for Alabama?
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u/Substantial-Wall3963 Ohio State Buckeyes 7h ago
I’m not sure how I feel about the expansion just yet, but you bring up a huge issue. Big picture, you would not risk your starters. But to not care about beating Michigan? That’s a foreign concept to me.
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u/ReasonableSide6520 Colorado Buffaloes 6h ago
Maybe move the rivalry’s to week 1
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u/Orbital2 Ohio State Buckeyes • Big Ten 6h ago
Week 1 is an awful idea.
Before the Big Ten championship game The Game was played on the 3rd week of November rather than the Thanksgiving week (the Big Ten would end the regular season early).
Just move it back to that week, it's still relatively close to the end of the regular season, you get the same weather as you did historically and its better for the actual students anyway. It used to be that we'd have a ton of events at school during the week of the game but now Thanksgiving gets in the middle of it.
You can then rest your starters the thanksgiving week if you want to, I really doubt we are going to get to a situation where you are resting players for multiple weeks and then show up to the playoffs rusty.
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u/Bread_Hut_2012 Oklahoma State Cowboys 6h ago
Why should Alabama or OSU risk an injury playing any game besides a playoff game? Why even play the games at all?
Just let CFP rank the teams and have the playoff immediately
Shit can get really stupid really fast, and it’s already starting to
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u/bluggabugbug Oklahoma State Cowboys 7h ago
How are they going to secure playoff spot if it’s subjective rankings all the way until the end? Top 5? Top 10? I’d say top 5 is safe but would you risk a poor showing or a bad loss if you’re the #10 team? Ruin your seeding or have the committee drop you to #25 just because you lost a game to a bad rival.
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u/deez-legumes Oklahoma Sooners • Tulane Green Wave 7h ago
A natty above all else but a win in Dallas will never be underappreciated by most, if not all, OU and Texas fans I know.
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u/OldGuyBadwheel Georgia Bulldogs 6h ago
Agreed. As long as we beat Auburn, Florida, and Tech , it is a successful season. However, to do that we’ve had to become one of the top programs in the southeast to be able to string those three wins in the same season.
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u/MU-TH-R6000 Penn State • Alabama 8h ago
If you don't care about beating your rivals because you'll still make the playoff...
Then they aren't your rivals. Rivalry has nothing to do with playoffs, records, etc.
My issue with the CFP expansion is 24 teams. I just think 16 is enough, snything past that is too much. Arbitrary I know, but most lines are 🤷♂️
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u/turnfourag Texas A&M Aggies • Paper Bag 8h ago
I agree, which is why I am curious why I am seeing a handful of fans say they no longer care. I'm sure a lot of it is just an impulsive reaction, but it still perplexes me to even have those thoughts.
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u/MU-TH-R6000 Penn State • Alabama 8h ago
I think a lot of those people are viewing 24 teams as the proverbial last straw, no so much the only reason. With conference realignment, expansions, death of rivalry games, etc. this expansion was just too much to care anymore
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u/FloodDawg Mississippi State • Memphis 7h ago
If you beat your rival in the regular season and then lose to them in the playoffs, it would negate any good feelings about the original victory, rendering it meaningless (obviously this scenario isn’t going to apply to all rivalries).
While there are many awful things about the CFP, not seeding to avoid rematches is one of the top ones for me, regardless of whether those rematches were between rivals or not.
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u/ManiacalComet40 Missouri Tigers • Big 8 6h ago
I think they should seed for rivalry rematches in the playoffs, not away from them. I think if you lost to Ole Miss in the playoffs, it would carry a significant amount of meaning.
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u/PronouncedNuculur Oklahoma Sooners 8h ago
I was definitely happier last Saturday than I was at the end of the regular season in 2025 with a trip to the playoffs and a loss to Texas.
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u/okiewxchaser Oklahoma • Red River Shootout 8h ago
The rivalry matters much much more to the fans than it does to the coaches or players
Let’s say at the end of the season, Alabama is 9-2 and Auburn is 6-6, if you are a coach from Alabama are you going to risk your starting QB being injured right before your playoff run? If you are a player for Auburn, are you going to risk a major injury that would hurt your NFL/transfer portal prospects for next season?
The answer is no, which is why the fans will see the third string QB from Alabama get sacked by a walk-on linebacker from Auburn
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u/CLT113078 Michigan Wolverines 8h ago
Rivalries dont matter as much either when guys are playing for money and can change schools every year.
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u/Fun_Elk593 8h ago
I haven’t seen a single compelling argument related to the regular season.
“It’ll make the games less meaningful” no it might make some games for some teams less meaningful but for a lot of teams the games become more meaningful because they now have a chance to get into the playoffs that they haven’t realistically had.
“It’ll mean fewer games matter” No, it’ll mean a lot more games matter, just maybe not for your favorite blue blood
“It’ll diminish the importance of rivalry games” Sounds like a skill issue. Also, it could make several rivalries more important than ever. Games like the cy-hawk and the border battle, could become annual playoff birth games.
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u/RulersBack Ohio State Buckeyes 8h ago edited 8h ago
And a lot of those less meaningful games still have plenty of incentive with byes and seeding. Check the pulse of every Indiana/OSU, ND/BYU, Bama/Tenn etc fan today even though it doesn't "mean anything". If we lose we'll still rightfully catch all the same slander and questions about Day with Cig asserting dominance atop the sport. That has nothing to do with expansion and everything to do with what we like about CFB. The doom and gloom just doesn't reflect reality
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u/esports_consultant Rose Bowl • Harvard-Yale 6h ago
No one cares about seeding you can't be serious.
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u/cowboys5592 Texas Longhorns • Purdue Boilermakers 8h ago
There’s not enough parity in college football to justify those hypotheticals. An 8-4 Iowa beats 7-5 Iowa State to go to the playoff… cool, now they they get to lose by 3 touchdowns to a top ten team that actually has hopes of winning it all. No one cares. Making the games less meaningful for blood bloods and teams with real ambition is a lousy system. No one cares about slightly above average teams outside of alumni.
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u/kyrev21 Kentucky Wildcats 7h ago
2023 UConn beat everyone in the basketball tournament by double digits, and 5 of 6 opponents by 23 points or more, a rare feat. No one called for contraction of the tournament because some teams got beat by too much. Yall need to stop demanding every game be competitive and understand that we play the games to see what happens, blowouts included
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u/PickleRichh Ohio State Buckeyes • Team Chaos 7h ago
But the regular season of basketball feels meaningless
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u/kyrev21 Kentucky Wildcats 7h ago
If it was meaningless then teams could lose every game and still make the tournament. The NFL structure allows teams with four losses in the playoffs, is the regular season meaningless for the NFL? There is no sport league in America except college football that has had the expectation that your first loss should be the end of the season
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u/JoeFrady Tennessee Volunteers 7h ago
The NFL's regular season is certainly not as exciting as CFB's used to be. That was what made college ball special.
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u/Impressive-Weird-908 Virginia Tech Hokies 7h ago
That’s what made CFB so exciting. I feel like I have to watch the big games because it’s basically a playoff game. I may or may not watch my Steelers because it doesn’t really matter that much and it’s not like we are going to win even if we do make it.
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u/ReasonableSide6520 Colorado Buffaloes 6h ago
You like playoff games but are complaining about getting more playoff games?
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u/Impressive-Weird-908 Virginia Tech Hokies 6h ago
We are getting less. Indiana vs Ohio State used to be a playoff game.
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u/Crib15 7h ago
The NFL regular season has meaning because it’s very easy for casual fans to follow. There’s also multiple reasons to watch- gambling, fantasy sports, spectacle, celebrity culture, etc etc. college football has a bit of the gambling and spectacle but it’s a little more difficult to follow for casuals- there’s just so many teams. The one thing college football had was that regular season wins and loses truly matter, and that just isn’t going to be the case with a 24 team playoff
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u/soundguynick Auburn Tigers • Southeastern (FL) Fire 7h ago
As someone who's team has been all over recently, from threatening to win the tournament to bring relegated back to the NIT (but at least winning that), I don't feel that the regular season has lost its luster.
Maybe fans of more traditional power basketball schools feel that way, but I remember what Auburn basketball was like under Tony Barber, when we were praying to make the NIT. Every game matters to me because the difference between relevance and irrelevance is pretty thin, especially as stacked as the SEC has been lately in basketball.
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u/esports_consultant Rose Bowl • Harvard-Yale 7h ago
You gotta divulge when you started watching college football before you say stuff like this. The regular season was the playoff before, success and achievement was measured granularly by the record of accomplishment during those 12 games, now this is devalued in importance by hyperfixation on playoff like every other boring professional sport in the US. Every game mattered for every season because of this; now, they don't, and they won't even more with the 24 teams. This is what made college football special, unique, and better.
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u/Fun_Elk593 5h ago
been watching college football for 45 years, how about you, bud
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u/esports_consultant Rose Bowl • Harvard-Yale 5h ago
Idk less than you claim but more than enough that I know your take is so insane it struggles to align with your claim.
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u/Fun_Elk593 5h ago
yeah, for sure man, so insane!!!! I’m basically a flat earther or whatever
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u/esports_consultant Rose Bowl • Harvard-Yale 4h ago
I don't understand how someone could have watched this sport for 45 years and needed explained to them what I was forced to explain to you.
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u/Fun_Elk593 4h ago
lmao, yeah man, I really couldn’t have lived without you “explaining” whatever you think you’ve explained
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u/esports_consultant Rose Bowl • Harvard-Yale 3h ago
You said you haven't found a rational argument, you got told a rational argument, now you are flaming me to avoid answering the rational argument.
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u/Fun_Elk593 3h ago
I actually didn’t say that, nor do I find anything you said to be particularly rational.
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u/esports_consultant Rose Bowl • Harvard-Yale 3h ago
Of course you don't find it rational, it tells you that you are wrong.
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u/bicyclechief North Dakota State • Nebraska 4h ago
Boring?? Look man I love college football as much as the next guy but the NFL is 100x the product college football has ever been and the regular season is extremely important
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u/esports_consultant Rose Bowl • Harvard-Yale 3h ago
NFL is 100x the product college football has ever been
What do you even mean by this?
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u/bicyclechief North Dakota State • Nebraska 3h ago
It’s a more exciting game every week?
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u/esports_consultant Rose Bowl • Harvard-Yale 3h ago
It's not though?
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u/bicyclechief North Dakota State • Nebraska 3h ago
It is. It’s not close
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u/esports_consultant Rose Bowl • Harvard-Yale 3h ago
Not sure why you would think that. I guess if you are comparing modern boring 12 team playoff advertising excess diluted clock rule transfer free for all CFB then sure but 15 years ago no not at all lol.
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u/bicyclechief North Dakota State • Nebraska 3h ago
NFL is by far the most watched and most followed sport in the US and it’s not even close. You can’t actually think college football is a better product? Sorry I don’t find Ohio state beating some local FCS school by 60 entertaining. That almost never happens in the nfl. Even this Ohio state Indiana game is boring compared to most NFL Sundays.
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u/esports_consultant Rose Bowl • Harvard-Yale 3h ago
Consumption volume is totally a perfect proxy for product quality.
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u/turnfourag Texas A&M Aggies • Paper Bag 8h ago
Agreed. When people say regular season games lose meaning, what they are really saying is the regular season games involving the handful of blue bloods lose meaning. Not for 50 other teams out there.
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u/Impressive-Weird-908 Virginia Tech Hokies 7h ago
Even for the other teams, there’s something exciting about the idea that VT could just obliterate Miami’s season.
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u/MoosilaukeFlyer Miami Hurricanes • Endicott Gulls 7h ago
I made this comparison the other day, but resting starters for a rivalry game would not go down well. It would go down as well as the 2005(?) Colts benching their starters while they were 14-0. Everyone trashed them, the players hated it, team morale was crushed, and they were immediately sent packing by the Steelers in the divisional. You’d see very similar in CFB.
Imagine being 11-0 Alabama and resting against an 8-3 Auburn team who you could’ve kicked out of the playoffs. Players would’ve been disgusted, fans would be pissed, there would be a ton of negativity around the program and all of the sudden you’re potentially playing a team that caught fire at the end of the season as your first playoff game.
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u/Inconceivable76 Ohio State • Arizona State 6h ago
It didn’t go down well the first time it happened for bowl games. People adjusted. Guess what. People care even less about bowl games now.
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u/Bread_Hut_2012 Oklahoma State Cowboys 6h ago
Bowl games are generally recognized as non-meaningful, especially in CFP era - we’re talking about sitting for regular season games now.
Not the same at all. “People adjusted” is a terrible metric, people historically have adjusted to all types of stupid nonsense. If your argument is “people will get over it”, you don’t really have an argument.
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u/Inconceivable76 Ohio State • Arizona State 5h ago
Are you young? Because bowl games used to be important. Teams used to care. One of the big knocks OSU had on Cooper was his bowl game record. cooper got hired for beating Michigan in a bowl game. Do you even know your coach‘s record in bowl games? Then a couple people got bad injuries in non championship games. Then a few a players started sitting out, and people were BIG mad. Then it happened more and more. And now no one even expects seniors to play. And no one cares when they lose.
NFL teams regularly sits players in the last game or two of the season if they are locked into the playoffs. No one cares.
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u/ThanosNice8910 Alabama Crimson Tide 8h ago
They think I’ll stop hating Tennessee? That I’ll stop fearing Jordan Hare voodoo?
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u/turnfourag Texas A&M Aggies • Paper Bag 8h ago
Not you specifically! Just one Alabama flair I saw yesterday lol
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u/Just_One_Victory Texas Tech Red Raiders • Hateful 8 8h ago
We don’t have a true rival school, so it’s not a big deal for us.
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u/turnfourag Texas A&M Aggies • Paper Bag 8h ago
I remember when I was a kid and we were still in the Big 12, some people tried to tell me Texas Tech was a bigger rival for A&M than Texas. I never bought into that, but I definitely considered y'all a rivalry for sure. We should totally be in a conference together.
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u/bamachine Alabama • Jacksonville State 8h ago
Fuck Auburn and LSU and Tennessee too! No playoffs will change that. The LSU is kinda just thrown in there to make it a trio, to fit the song. My hatred for orange rivals will never wane.
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u/honchos_vinegar Virginia Tech Hokies 8h ago
r/CFB fans also aren't athletes and don't have their mentality. These top athletes are competitive. They aren't going to not care just because the playoffs aren't on the line. Losing sucks plain and simple, and these guys have a losing sucks mentality or they wouldn't be playing at this level. Guarantee you none of them go into a game thinking "eh this one really doesn't matter I'm not gonna try hard."
I think it's more about the fans feeling it doesn't matter than the athletes.
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u/Callsign_Psycopath Georgia Bulldogs • Sickos 8h ago
Fuck that. If we only go 3-9 every year the wins better be against the Reptiles, Barners, and Nerds.
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u/AllAloneWithNoOne Ohio State Buckeyes • Texas Longhorns 8h ago
I just don't think you need a field this big tbh. NIL brought slightly more parity where the 12 team works 24 is just ludicrous and intentional greed. It's like they started paying college kids and immediately had to find ways to run em further into the dirt.
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u/dawgfan19881 Georgia Bulldogs 8h ago
Not a rivalry but I want to beat Alabama. I live in west Georgia so I see these people all the time. They’ve been the standard forever. They have more national titles than anyone else. They have more sec titles than anyone else. I want to beat them for all those reasons. The problem is that expansion removes all other stakes from the game.
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u/S3dsk_hunter Ohio State Buckeyes 7h ago
I can't speak for other rivalries, but definitely as an OSU fan I saw a large contingency who didn't seem to care about the fact that we lost the game because we were still going to the playoffs and ultimately won the championship. I kind of felt like maybe it was mostly a younger demographic, though I have no evidence to back that up. With further expansion, I could see rivalries getting more interest and maybe even some new rivalries being born as teams should start playing more competitive games not having to worry so much about a single loss.
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u/_moosleech Miami Hurricanes • MAC 7h ago
People are citing Ohio State and Alabama, and how losing their rivalry games could've cost them a shot at a title.
However, even back in 2000, Florida State lost to us, we both finished with one loss, and they went to play for the national title. And beyond there being exceptions to "lost to your rival and it cost you the season", this hypothetical is a tiny fraction of all rivalries.
Outside of perennial powerhouses like Alabama and Ohio State (who might not have their season ended by losing to their rival anyways, depending on the season), for 99.9% of rivalry matchups, it's already about winning and bragging rights. That vast majority don't, and almost have never, had national title implications.
In fact, I think it can be argued that more big rivalry games will have a direct impact, since there's a much bigger pool of teams fighting for playoff spots now.
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u/necrolic_8848 SMU Mustangs 7h ago
complaint coming from mid SEC and B10 team fans mad that they cant tell themselves they had a successful season by catching a contender on an off week
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u/Lansdallius Oklahoma • Red River Shootout 6h ago
I think Texas is still making the CFP even as it stands at 12 teams, and that's not going to make them feel any better about the fact that Arch basically handed us the Golden Hat.
We're probably optimistically looking at 8-4, but Brent may have saved his job by winning Red River and giving the team hope for the future if they ever figure out an offense.
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u/AoA_nB1 Penn State • Montana State 6h ago
I can speak from an fcs prospective (pretty large playoff format already) with my favorite team and the other team we share a state with usually residing around the top 5 mark the last couple of years.
the only thing i want more than a UM loss in the Brawl is a national championship, and I got both last year. I could not give a fuck if we are 0-9 facing an undefeated Griz team that’ll win the national championship, whoever wins the Brawl has 51% of the football bragging rights for the next 364 days.
Now every rivalry doesn’t have this level of hatred, but for a million + of us montanans, the only thing that matters is beating the griz/cats in november
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u/rocket_beer Boise State Broncos 8h ago
The big problem with this proposed playoff bracket is money
You make the bracket, you get money for that slot
Only 1 slot will be for a G6
All the remaining money goes to the P4
4.16% to a G6 school
95.83% go to P4 schools
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u/PointBlankCoffee Texas Longhorns • Paper Bag 8h ago
One guaranteed slot. Its just the top 24 though, so if 4 G6 schools are ranked, they will all get in.
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u/rocket_beer Boise State Broncos 8h ago
2 things:
“If” they are ranked. They won’t rank them.
All conference champs should get a bid.
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u/B1GFanOSU Ohio State Buckeyes • Big Ten 8h ago
I mean, if you win the Natty, losing to your rival doesn’t sting quite as bad.
(That’s not to say it doesn’t sting…)
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u/Quiet-Day392 California Golden Bears 8h ago edited 8h ago
I don't care about playoffs. Anonymous team #6 upsetting anonymous team #2 affects the betting community. People watching it on TV affects ESPN's bottom line. But I have no interest in it. Watching Bob Ross paint happy trees on PBS is more interesting, maybe once a year for five minutes.
Our rivals were all removed when the Pac was dismantled. In the other P4 conferences, expansion has diluted rivalries to the point of trivia. Those conferences are built to supply anonymous teams to a bunch of pointless playoff games....that I don't care about....
What interests me is going to the game this afternoon and watching some kids play football, along with all the hoopla that going to a game involves. If my team wins all the better. It is still a Saturday well spent.
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u/DrSnidely Alabama • Virginia Tech 8h ago
Beating Tennessee is just about the only thing I still care about, TBH
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u/Accomplished-Pin6564 LSU Tigers 7h ago
Main thing is even if you win, the rival can easily get a mulligan and still get into the playoffs.
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u/Crib15 7h ago
Michigan-Ohio state is rooted in the fact that the winner usually wins the Conference. Geography isn’t really that much in play. It’s not like the pro teams from the states have much of a “rivalry”. This game kinda loses its meaning if both sides are going to the playoff. No one at either school would be happy with a season where they lost all their games except for The Game. A 1-11 season at Michigan or Ohio State means you’re fired.
The rivalries truly rooted in geography/demographics will still have meaning. Being the best team in a state will still mean something. Regional rivals will still matter. Bama vs Georgia only means something now because the loser missed out on a championship- but Bama vs Auburn will continue to be important.
1
u/Basic_Nucleophile UAB Blazers • American 7h ago
Alabama lost he iron bowl in 2017, made the playoff and won the title. I literally could not care less that they lost the iron bowl if they won the playoffs.
That's what people are talking about. Ultimately the sport is being forcefully changed from a regular season focused sport, to a playoff focused sport. CFB used to be unique in how important its regular season was. With a 24 team playoff you can go 9-3 against a tough schedule and sleep easy about making the playoff. That's just completely different to where the sport was even 10 years ago.
1
u/ChangKai-Shrek Iowa Hawkeyes 5h ago
I gotta tell ya, if Iowa somehow won the Natty while losing the CyHawk or Floyd, it wouldn't ruin it for me by any means, but I'd be very secretly annoyed.
Conversely if one of our rivals won in a season we beat them in the rivalry game, it would be a bittersweet consolation prize.
1
u/Jimmykindaexists Missouri Tigers 8h ago
Because it just becomes simply another game rather than a game that can determine your seasons trajectory
1
u/_moosleech Miami Hurricanes • MAC 7h ago
For Ohio State and Alabama maybe (who already might've gotten in with a loss anyways, under most systems).
For the vast majority of teams and rivalries who aren't always ranked Top 5, the new system makes those games more likely to impact the season's trajectory.
0
u/nittanyprice Penn State Nittany Lions • Team Meteor 8h ago
My Alma Matters motto for years was literally “Unrivaled” so we never have cared about rivalry aside maybe with Pitt which is rarely played and doesn’t have the excitement it used to hold, on either side. Rivalry matters little for most schools anymore aside from tOSU and Michigan, maybe a few others. I’ve always kind of wanted my school to go back to being independent like ND. It might start making more financial sense with the 24 team rules.
1
u/FloodDawg Mississippi State • Memphis 6h ago
This experience of Penn State would seem to be very different from most schools. You seem to lack the context to opine about how much rivalries matter to the rest of CFB. Rivalries probably matter less to the mercenary players, but college football was built on in-state/regional rivalries, particularly the law/med school-Ag school divide.
1
u/nittanyprice Penn State Nittany Lions • Team Meteor 6h ago
Get that totally. Penn State was fully independent for so long it probably matters less. If everyone was independent we could theoretically protect the rivalry that matters most, and even keep the regionality that made it more fun for fans until we had super conferences where conferences like the B1G have to fly across the country, and the expense of that for fan bases as well. It was fun when we played a P12 team 1x a year in a Rose Bowl, but doing that multiple times a year is a lot.
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u/Kapt_Krunch72 Western Michigan Broncos 8h ago
For me its not so much the rivalries mean less by there could be a potential for where Michigan and Ohio State play each other for 3 weeks in a row or 3 time in 4 weeks. That really damages the Rivalry.
5
u/PointBlankCoffee Texas Longhorns • Paper Bag 8h ago
They are canceling conference championship games though
-1
u/Kapt_Krunch72 Western Michigan Broncos 8h ago
God I hope so. Nobody would want to watch any team play 3 weeks in a row regardless of who it is.
3
u/PointBlankCoffee Texas Longhorns • Paper Bag 8h ago
Itll disproportionately hurt G6 teams that already find it difficult to get ranked matchups to boost their rankings. Think about the fact that P4 are required to schedule 9 conference games plus a P4 non conference. Most G6 teams will not get more than 1 P4 matchup a season, and no conference championship to sell their case
2
u/Kapt_Krunch72 Western Michigan Broncos 7h ago
The NCAA has already floated the idea of creating a new football subdivision just for the P4 schools. The reality, whether you like it or not, is if the college isn't spending $30+ million a year in NIL they won't have a realistic chance of competing against the big teams.
1
u/PointBlankCoffee Texas Longhorns • Paper Bag 7h ago
I guess, if thats what the G6 fans want.... I think its terrible for the sport though, even if my team is one of the biggest beneficiaries
-1
u/Inconceivable76 Ohio State • Arizona State 6h ago
For there to be a real rivalry, the other team has to be able to take something from you. Illinois is a historical rival. They are our most played opponent all time. But they aren’t our true rival because they only very rarely can take something from us that’s important. For 60 or so years, the outcome of our season was largely determined by beating Michigan. Couldn’t win the big 10 without beating Michigan. Couldn’t go to the rose bowl (or any bowl lol) without beating Michigan. Couldn’t win a national championship without beating Michigan. Starting in 2024, we learned we could do the last two without beating Michigan. Now we can do whatever we want.
this is all true in reverse as well.
0
u/turnfourag Texas A&M Aggies • Paper Bag 4h ago
I appreciate your response as you are an Ohio State fan and provide the perspective I am looking for.
I will say I strongly disagree with your definition of what makes a real rivalry. To me, it doesn't matter what can be taken from each other or that something has to be at stake.
So while I disagree, your perspective and definition of rivalry does give me an understanding why some fans may lose interest in it.
1
u/Inconceivable76 Ohio State • Arizona State 2h ago
until 3 years ago, there were younger OSU fans that only mildly hated Michigan. why? Because it had mostly been domination since 2001. 10 year olds today will not have the same level of hate because it just won’t be as important. Outside of fans talking shit, it won’t matter as much.
60
u/FeelingWrongdoer6696 /r/CFB 8h ago
the rivalry still matters, it just lost its ceiling, not its floor. losing to Michigan used to end your season, now it just costs you a seed, so the fear is gone but the hate isn't.