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Sadly, the final week of the 2024 college football season has come to an end for most of the 134 FBS major college teams. With 80 teams needed to fill the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoffs plus the litany of post-season bowl games, there are now 82 teams with six wins or more waving their hands hoping to be selected.
Army and Navy still must wait two weeks to play their annual contest. Why the delay?
Television, of course. The Army/Navy game’s delay by a week will allow a major Christmas advertising vehicle (called college football) to showcase dozens of pricey holiday TV ads during the second weekend of December.
This weekend, the controllers of college football are placing nine conference championship games for your Friday and Saturday TV viewing enjoyment. Never mind that some of these games will be relatively meaningless for the first time.
Here is this weekend’s conference title game line-up:
Friday, December 6:
Conference USA – 8-4 Western Kentucky at 8-4 Jacksonville State (6PM – CBSSportsNet)
Mountain West – 10-2 UNLV at 11-1 Boise State (7PM on Fox)
American Athletic Conference – 9-3 Tulane at 11-1 Army (7PM on ABC)
Saturday, December 7:
Big 12 – 10-2 Iowa State at 10-2 Arizona State (11AM on ABC)
Mid-American Conference – 9-3 Ohio at 8-4 Miami Ohio (11AM on ESPN – game in Detroit)
SEC – 10-2 Georgia vs. 11-1 Texas (3PM on ABC – game in Atlanta)
Sunbelt – 9-3 Marshall at 10-2 UL-Lafayette (6:30PM on ESPN)
Big Ten – 11-1 Penn State vs. 12-0 Oregon (7PM on CBS – game at Indianapolis)
ACC – 9-3 Clemson vs. 11-1 SMU (7PM on ABC – game in Charlotte)
For purposes of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoffs, the losers of this Saturday’s SEC and Big Ten title games will still likely get an invitation next Sunday, December 8.
With a loss, Penn State would drop to 10-2. It’s nearly guaranteed that four Big Ten teams (Oregon, Penn State, Indiana, and Ohio State) will make the 12-team playoff field.
If Georgia loses and drops to 9-3, the Bulldogs will bark and say that their nine wins makes them the “Top Dawg” over other SEC teams with three losses (Alabama, Ole Miss, and South Carolina).
Will 9-3 Alabama be left out of the playoffs?
Even though the Crimson Tide lost to 6-6 teams like Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, I would be surprised if Alabama is left out of the 12-team playoff field.
The College Football Playoff committee will determine the dozen playoff teams. Those difficult final decisions will be significantly influenced by ESPN.
The Worldwide Leader in Sports is forking-out more than $1 billion PER YEAR to televise the college football playoff games.
The network will lobby for as many marquis names as possible in the 12-team playoff field.
In the new format, there will be four games played in Round 1, four quarterfinal match-ups, two semi-final contests, and one championship finale. For those 11 games, that’s more than $100 million being paid for the TV rights to each playoff contest.
Expect four hour playoff games filled with 60 minutes of commercials in the game itself. You can count on 25-30 minute halftimes plus pre-game and post-game shows filled with TV ads, too.
ESPN will give a wink toward selecting “name brand” 9-3 Alabama vs. 11-1 Army, 11-2 Boise State (if the Broncos should lose to UNLV Saturday), 11-2 UL-Lafayette, 11-2 SMU (if the Ponies should fall Saturday vs. Clemson), 10-2 Miami, 10-2 BYU, the 10-3 loser of Saturday’s Big 12 title game and 9-3 teams such as Deion Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes, Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss Rebels, and spunky South Carolina.
After Alabama, the biggest remaining TV draws would be:
1. Army Black Knights – Only if they beat Tulane on Friday night. Even if Army wins, a loss the following week to rival 9-3 Navy would be devastating to the CFP committee, though. This seems far too too risky of a selection for the risk-averse playoff committee.
2. Miami Hurricanes – This team is either loved or hated by much of America. Selecting Miami over Alabama would be a big surprise to most college football fans.
3. Colorado Buffaloes– America’s football fans would love to see Deion Sanders (and sons) plus CU’s likely Heisman Trophy winner, Travis Hunter.
If the CFP committee wants the most TV eyeballs, Colorado would be a terrific choice to receive an at-large selection.
Don’t be surprised if Alabama makes the field ahead of a few teams with a better record. You’ve been warned.
“Kan’t” State finishes with a perfect record!
It’s true! The Kent State Golden Flashes just completed a perfect 0-12 season.
They even lost 23-17 (at home) to a small college this year. The aptly named Red Flashes of St. Francis of Pennsylvania beat the Golden Flashes of Kent State and finished the year at a meager 4-7.
Just wondering…Did the halftime show during that game include a group of middle age cheerleaders named the Hot Flashes?
Let’s review the latest SwampSwami College Football Top 25 rankings for the week ending Saturday, November 30, 2024:
