Think of everything that makes college football special:
1. Rivalries
2. Bowl Games
3. Every game being life or death
4. Regionality

The last 15 years have killed all four.

How many teams don’t play a single rival now? Memphis’s biggest rivals were Louisville and Cincinnati. Haven’t played them in forever.

Bowl games have been meaningless for a few years now. But now, we might as well not even have them.

I hate how under the 12 team playoff a team can use 3 games and still have a shot. Now there’s going to be 8-4 SEC and Big Ten teams arguing for a spot.

I could spend all day complaining about West Coast schools in the ACC and Big 10.

In the closing minutes of “College GameDay” last week, inside a Tuscaloosa, Ala., basketball arena where the show had taken shelter from Hurricane Isaias, the ESPN cameras found Pat McAfee building toward a prediction. Over his shoulder, in the background of the frame, a college student stood in the stands, blond and bare-chested, his green shirt in one fist, flexing and roaring like a raging wrestler.

McAfee took his time. The shirtless young man almost made his muscles burst through his skin. The rest of the ESPN panel — Desmond Howard, Nick Saban and guest picker Bryce Young — had appeased the home crowd by picking Alabama to beat Georgia. McAfee, who grew up outside Pittsburgh, laid a Southern drawl over his vowels, slow and syrupy, a little overdone to match his persona.

The BCS slogan was every game mattered. On December 4, 2011 that all changed. Alabama, which finished in 3rd place in the SEC and had already lost on their home field to No. 1 LSU, was placed in the BCSNC game due to “the eye test” over an Oklahoma State team that had a better overall resume.

Whether it was to usher in the four-team playoff or just generate bigger TV ratings, this completely invalidated the results of the so-called “Game of the Century”
between LSU and Alabama. Alabama’s consequence for losing on its home field was to essentially get a free pass to back in to the championship game. LSU’s “reward” for beating the Tide was a matchup with UGA in the SEC Championship Game - and then having to beat Bama again. Essentially, LSU had to go 3-0
in those games, but Bama only had to be 1-1.

Every game no longer mattered.

EDIT TO ADD:

Resume Comparison

SOS - Okie St # 6, Bama # 23

Wins vs BCS Top 25- OSU 4 (#8 Kansas, #12 Baylor, #14 Oklahoma, #24 Texas)

Bama - 2 (#6 Arkansas, #22 Penn State)

FBS Wins - OSU 11, Bama 10

Oklahoma State - Big 12 Champs

Bama - 3rd Place SEC (2nd in West Division)

—————

Bama’s argument is based on their loss being better than Oklahoma State’s loss.

Bama lost to the #1 team in the country. It was at home, with a huge home crowd, in a game where they knew the SEC West and likely a national championship berth was on the line.

OSU lost to a 6-6 team. It was on the road, on a Friday night, on a day that the university’s athletic department suffered a major tragedy.

Bama was given a do-over for a losing a game where they had everything in their favor.

2023: Deion was brought in to bring up a moribund program that had gone 1-11 the year before. There was tons of hype around the program, and a lot of big national games. The team started off 3-0 which fueled the hype machine, but this was fool's gold as they went 1-8 in Pac-12 (RIP) play to finish 4-8. Still, there were reasons to be optimistic. The team was bad, but very much relevant.

2024: Legitimately a good season. The team was in Big-12 title contention until they were upset by Kansas. They went to the Alamo Bowl where they were blown out by BYU in what turned out to be the conference's bronze medal match. But still, they went 9-4, which was the best Colorado season since 2016's 10-4. In fact, it was only the third time since 2005 in which Colorado finished with a winning record. They had the Heisman winner in Travis Hunter. 4 players were selected in the NFL draft, the most the team had since 2017.

2025: With Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter gone to the NFL (as well as other key contributors like Jimmy Horn Jr.), the hype died, and the team faltered, falling to 3-9 as Deion battled health issues.

2026: Currently 2-2, with a loss to Baylor, a blowout loss to Northwestern, and wins against Weber St and Georgia Tech in a down year. I feel like the average person who has a casual interest in CFB might think, "Colorado? Is Deion still there?" I haven't heard much about Colorado this year outside of people making fun of their strength coach. It also feels like the vitriol this sub harbored for Deion and Colorado has cooled off.

They face 3 consecutive ranked opponents, and 3-9/4-8 looks pretty likely.

My uneducated prediction is that Deion steps down at year's end due to health concerns. From what I gather, firing (or a "mutual decision to part ways") seems unlikely considering his buyout and the Colorado athletic department deficit.

In no other major American sport will you see people calling for the complete exclusion of more than half of the teams in the division/league from the playoffs. Every team in the NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA, and MLS has a way to guarantee themselves a spot in the playoffs, and the opportunity to make it to the championship. Even the lower divisions of college football have a guaranteed pathway for any single team to potentially make the playoffs by winning the right games (e.g, the FCS guaranteeing an autobid for every conference champion). Attempting to exclude an eligible conference winner from the playoffs at any non-FBS level of NCAA football is impossible. They all follow the principle that if a given team is in a certain division or level of play (like the FCS), that team should be able to control their destiny (at least before any games are played) to make the playoffs of that league, no matter what conference they're in, what the vegas odds are, or what talent level the team is supposed to have. This appears to not be the case the media is making for the FBS football playoffs.

The media at large is making the argument that the G5 should not be allowed into the college football playoff because of differences in skill or talent gap. Now, I won't deny that the SEC is better than the AAC or Sun Belt. It's a point that anyone arguing in good faith will have to concede. However, the divisions of "G5" and "P4" aren't official in any capacity. Officially, the Sun Belt and the Big Ten are both FBS conferences. The key word there is FBS. Contrary to what many proponents of kicking the G5 out of the playoff would have you believe, JMU and Oregon actually do play in the same overall competitive division. JMU, being a member of the FBS, should have the ability to control their own destiny to make the playoffs with a concrete measurement of success, like winning their conference (which they did).

While some may argue that the talent disparity and the number of teams in the FBS is too great to have a unified playoff for both P4 and G5, ultimately, the G5 and P4 are still in the same division. If the P5 wants to have their own exclusive playoff, they should go all the way and break away from the G5 entirely, not act like they aren't in the same division, even when they are. Also, while the talent disparity in other college sports like college basketball is still wide between the high and low-majors, they at least do the low-majors the courtesy of inviting them to the playoffs if they meet the condition of winning their conference. This is because, for all of college basketball's faults, the leadership and media covering that sport at least acknowledge that the blue bloods and the low majors are in the same division, and even cheer the low-majors on when they make runs in the playoffs. Not so with the FBS. A good bit of the media even seems to be rooting against the little guy.

If the P4 want only their teams to be in the playoff, they should split off and make a super league. Otherwise, as long as they're in the same league as the G5 and keep scheduling them, the G5 should have a spot in the playoff.

We all know the truth. It's the right thing for them to do.

NASCAR used to be a much bigger deal than it is today. They had a passionate and growing fanbase, regular premium media coverage, and a unique segment of the sporting culture in America that made them almost unassailable. But they got greedy, and they forgot why people loved them in the first place. They tried to capture new viewers and fans, but in the process they changed too much of what was core to the sport, alienating their fans, and ultimately went through a major contraction when those fans left.

College football has been on a similar path for the last 15-25 years. It's never been as stable as we might think, but the churn has accelerated as conferences and programs chase more dollars and more casual fans. For the past 5 years, my favorite K-State communities (shout out BOTC) have been increasingly filled with comments from the die-hard crowd about how hard it is to care now. The changes have really strained our connections to the school, our communities, and the sport.

The Big 12 has been, along with the PAC 12, on the front lines for a lot of the turmoil. We have been nearly picked apart more times than I can count, and as a fan of a less endowed and less historically winning program, I have regularly worried if we and our brethren are about to be kicked out of the party.

Ironically, I think the NASCAR moment for college football now falls to the Big 12. If we allow Texas Tech to have their way here, the sport is absolutely done. Die hards will disappear, and so will the core of what sustains this whole crazy thing.

The Big 12 must absolutely punish Texas Tech, and the punishment must be severe enough that nobody ever tries this again. We are all counting on it.

Lincoln Riley is being DRAGGED by Los Angeles media the last two days. Much has been made about the USC "crowd size" at games but this is market unique to any other in college football where local media is not afraid to call out the coaches. The media here doesn't need to be on anyone good side to have their career. Despite the $70 million buy-out, I don't think he survives anything less than 9-3

https://twitter.com/CFBRep/status/1731365362556367008

Continued: "I understand the style points and best matchups, but one team has a loss (Alabama) and one doesn’t (Florida State). Those kids have went out there every week and busted their behinds for this moment.”