Georgia-Alabama Is the First College Football Game That Won't Be What It Should Because of the 12-Team Playoff

Saturday's game between No. 2 Georgia and No. 4 Alabama is going to be one of the biggest matchups in college football this year. The two programs who have combined to win three of the last four national championships are battling it out in primetime in a game that should feel like a momentous clash of titans.

And yet, it kinda just feels like another game.

Transport your mind to 2013 for a minute and think about what this game would mean — that's really not that long ago, and yet for all that has changed in college football since then, it may as well be 1970. The loser of this game would have precisely zero margin for error the rest of the season and would need to win a likely rematch in the SEC Championship Game to still have a chance at winning a national championship. Hell, even in the four-team College Football Playoff era, that would still pretty much be the case.

But now, what would have previously been a season-defining game with incredible implications is just a nice measuring stick for two teams that will almost assuredly be in the Playoff regardless of what happens. Alabama's remaining schedule — at Tennessee, Missouri and at LSU are the Crimson Tide's toughest remaining games — would give it a bit more wiggle room with a loss than Georgia's would — at Texas, at Ole Miss and Tennessee — but both are very likely going to find themselves in the CFP at the end of the year no matter what. UGA could potentially lose this game and two others and still get in.

And if all you're after is the College Football Playoff, then this is awesome for you. That's become basically the only thing that matters in the sport anymore and your feelings are now considered normal. But I'm not that old and even I've been around long enough to remember when games like this were what made college football special and awesome because teams actually needed to win them. Obviously Georgia and Alabama fans want their team to win on Saturday, but fans of the losing team will wake up Sunday morning and head to church feeling just as good about their team's season as they did prior to kickoff. That shouldn't be the case for a game of this magnitude.

The argument of "more games mattering" in the regular season because of an expanded Playoff field loses a bit of its luster when you're trading the meaning of games like Georgia-Alabama for ones like Penn State-Illinois.

I resent what the Playoff has become in terms of how it has warped the view of the entirety of college football, but even more than that, I resent that as the coverage of it has encapsulated more and more of the sport, it has expanded to include more teams. If the Playoff is all that matters, let's make it actually matter instead of having a game between No. 2 and No. 4 be a fun exhibition.