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Thank goodness, it’s finally over!
Congratulations to 14-2 Ohio State.
The Buckeyes jumped out to a big lead and then held on for a 34-23 win over Notre Dame (which also finished with a 14-2 record) to take the national championship trophy home to Columbus earlier this week.
The season’s new (but-not-necessarily-improved) 12-team College Football Playoffs finally ended on Monday night, January 20, 2025.
Let that date sink in for a moment.
Played nearly three weeks after New Year’s Day, the 2024 college football season was still underway for both Ohio State and Notre Dame late into the first month of 2025.
Some of the players on both of these competitors had already graduated from school in December at the end of the fall semester. Others may have quietly dropped out before this game was played.
The final game of this year’s college football season occurred after both schools had already started their spring semester!
Notre Dame started its spring term on January 13. Ohio State’s spring semester classes began January 6.
After January 20th’s final game for these two teams, several players on both rosters may wish to transfer to another school willing to give them more playing time and/or pay them more NIL money.
Haven’t most universities already started their spring semester by Tuesday, January 21?
Pshaw! Such concerns about something like academics now seem to be a minor detail in today’s big money world of college athletics.
With so much loot on the line, the universities are now likely to roll-out the red carpet to accommodate any late transfer athlete/student whom the athletics department wants to enroll in their school.
Welcome to the new developmental league of professional football. It is now being played on major college campuses.
To “cover or not to cover” – Is that also becoming a consideration in college sports?
With fourth down and only 26 seconds left in Monday night’s championship game, Ohio State had the ball on the Notre Dame 15-yard line leading by eight points at 31-23.
Those who wagered on the title game knew that Ohio State was a 9-point favorite.
If Ohio State opted for a fourth down running play, Notre Dame would have received the ball back with just about 20 seconds to go. However, the Fighting Irish would have to traverse nearly 90 yards to reach the end zone.
The chances of Notre Dame scoring a miraculous touchdown and then converting a 2-point conversion (with no timeouts remaining) to tie the game would have been microscopic.
Instead, Ohio State opted to kick a field goal on fourth down to make the final score 34-23. In doing so, they also covered the 9-point spread.
The field goal and resulting 11-point margin made Ohio State’s betting fans become doubly ecstatic on Monday night.
A representative for a national sports wagering company said that the final field goal in the waning seconds was “a good result for bettors.”
He added, “The 12-team playoff was a success (for his company) with each game ranking among the most bet of the year.”
Those comments provide a glimpse as to why fans like me are quickly losing our lifelong passion for college athletics.
Excessive greed (by all parties) is tarnishing the joy of supporting our favorite major college sports teams.
SwampSwami’s report card about the expanded 12-team CFP’s first year
A. It’s simply too long!
Ohio State and Notre Dame just completed their 16th game of the season. Though they both played four extra games, it required 7 ½ weeks from the end of the regular season (Saturday, November 30) through the final game on Monday, January 20.
Neither of these two teams played in a conference championship game. Ohio State actually finished third in the Big Ten Conference! Notre Dame, an independent, did not have to play in a conference title game.
Both Notre Dame and Ohio State didn’t play their first round playoff game for three weeks after the end of their regular season.
The conference championship games (which have now been rendered virtually meaningless) had to be played first. The dozen playoff teams were announced on Sunday, December 8.
From that point, the next four games were played an average of nine days apart through the finale on Monday, January 20.
Of course, this was done so that ESPN could maximize the value of its own holiday bowl line-up. It was also scheduled to avoid a few clashes with NFL football games being played on Saturdays during late December and early January.
Taking seven weeks to play four extra games was totally unnecessary. It’s time to renegotiate with ESPN.
B. The seeding of the 12 playoff teams was a big flop
After all of the years of waiting for the jumbo 12-team playoff concept to begin, you might think that the seeding of the dozen competitors would be well conceived.
Nope. You can thank television and greedy conferences and universities for that, too.
The playoff seeding attempted to give more “credit” to four conference champions and awarded them with the top four seeds. Oregon (Big Ten), Georgia (SEC), Arizona State (Big 12), and Boise State (Mountain West) earned their way into the post-season tournament by winning their conference titles and receiving the first four seeds.
The other eight teams were selected based on their overall season performance. That group of eight was pitted against one another at the home stadium of the higher-seeded team.
C. Having the first round games played on-campus was a terrific idea!
This year’s #5, 6, 7, and 8 seeded teams hosted a first round game at their own home stadiums against teams seeded #12, 11, 10, and 9 respectively.
Cold weather played a big factor for opening round games played at #6 seed Penn State, #7 Notre Dame and #8 Ohio State. Only #5 seed Texas played their game vs. #12 Clemson in relatively benign weather conditions in Austin.
Regardless of the weather, playing those four games at the home stadiums added some excitement. Unfortunately, none of the first round games had a close outcome on the scoreboard.
Q – Did anyone REALLY believe that we needed 12 teams to determine a national champion?
D. Why didn’t the four top seeds get to host a quarterfinal playoff game at their home stadium?
That seems to be another big flaw in the current 12-team playoff format. Why not give the top four seeds a reward by playing in front of their home fans in the quarterfinals?
Instead, Oregon was jetting to southern California, Georgia fans flocked to New Orleans, Arizona State flew across the country to Atlanta, and Boise State fans traveled to Phoenix.
Sadly, only one of this year’s quarterfinal games (Texas edging Arizona State in double overtime) was a compelling contest.
Q – Did anyone REALLY believe that we needed eight teams to determine a national champion?
E. Television viewership was less than ESPN had been hoping for
None of the four opening round contests were close games. The TV ratings averaged to about 11 million viewers per contest. ESPN was likely expecting 10-20% more viewers for the opening round games.
In the quarterfinals, the television viewership for those four playoff games grew to a more robust 17 million fans.
The two semifinal games (Penn State vs. Notre Dame and Texas vs. Ohio State) produced some significant on-field drama. Those two games averaged 19 million TV viewers.
Monday’s title game between Notre Dame and Ohio State pulled “only” 22 million viewers. However, that number was significantly lower than last year’s 25 million who watched Michigan beat Washington.
ESPN spent about $1 billion to buy the rights to the 11 games in this year’s college football playoffs. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know if the sports network made money on the first year of their long-term deal?
Summary – Let’s renegotiate! Eight is enough
We should be able to agree that the opening round college football playoff games were not compelling.
The four higher seeds (#5, 6, 7, and 8) sent the four lowest ranked teams (#12, 11, 10, and 9) quickly packing.
Why should we do that again next year?
By eliminating the bottom four teams and getting down to the eight highest rated competitors, a slimmed-down College Football Playoff format would reduce this drawn-out process by up to two weeks.
All eight college football teams would play during the opening round. The top four seeds should host a home game as a reward for having an outstanding regular season.
The first round games could easily be played by mid-December and serve to kick-off ESPN’s lengthy college football bowl season (You’re welcome, Worldwide Sports Leader!).
After a Christmas break, the national semifinals should be played on or before January 1 at rotating major bowl sites.
One more thing – Play the CFP championship game on a Saturday night!
The final game should kick-off one week later on a Saturday night – regardless of any NFL competition.
Since most of the college football season is played on Saturday, why not end the season on a night when the kids can stay-up and watch the entire game?
Does anyone think the NFL would be dumb enough to move their Super Bowl game to a Monday night simply because a TV network wanted them to do that?
The NFL “owns” Sunday football and plays its title game on a Sunday evening.
College football’s title game should be played on the same day of the week which college football teams and their fans cherish during the fall.
That means a Saturday night championship game!