For The Sake of College Football, Please Never Take Away The 4 Automatic Byes from Conference Winners
Last night was the first unveiling of the official college football playoff bracket. Which at this point of the season means next to nothing. All we really learned is that the playoff committee does in fact take the AP poll into account, despite trying to claim otherwise. But who cares. There are still plenty of games left to play. Questions we have about certain teams will be answered. Additional questions about other teams will pop up. The final 12-team bracket will look nothing like the one we were presented with last night. People will be mad regardless. Whatever. The important thing is that we finally have a sizable college football playoff at the end of the season. It's a beautiful thing.
The main complaint I've heard about the format of this playoff is in regards to the 4 automatic byes awarded to the 4 highest ranked conference winners. The complaints make total sense. Why the hell should BYU be awarded a bye over teams like Texas, Ohio State, Penn State, etc., who we all agree are better, and objectively more proven football teams. They talked about it last night on Unnecessary Roughness.
I agreed with them at first. But the more I thought about it, what's made college football so great this year is the parity, right? At least for me it has. I love the fact that there are 5-10 teams who people genuinely believe are good enough to win the National Championship. Even if they're pretty much all in the Big Ten and SEC.
I think if we keep with current format exactly as is, the parity will become even greater. It will spread out more equally among the 4 major conferences. Because if we keep those 4 conference winner byes in place, and continue treating the ACC and Big 12 as if they're equal to the Big Ten and SEC, then you're going to get coaches and players who think to themselves, "Shit.. if we want the path of least resistance to the playoffs, why don't we go to fucking Arizona State and run through the Big 12?" That sounds better to me than getting my ass kicked week in and week out in Gainesville, Florida.
If parity across college football is what we're going for, then the way the playoff is set up now is perfect. I'm not saying the Big 12 is ever going to catch up to the SEC. I'm sure the SEC will always be king, with the Big Ten close behind. And it might seem unfair at first to award a BYU with a first round bye. But if they hold strong with the current format, in a few years, things will have evened out significantly.
I think that's especially important right now, because personally, I don't love the direction college football is going. I love the playoff part. But I don't love how all the good teams are funneling to two conferences. The way things are trending, the Big Ten and SEC will soon be the only conferences that matter at all. I've seen people throw out scenarios where eventually we split up the Power 4 and the Group of 5 teams all together. I hate that so much. I love that as a Bowling Green fan, even though I know it will almost certainly never happen, that at the beginning of each season I can think to myself, "If we really put it together this year, we might be able to make a playoff run."
I'm afraid if we get rid of the 4 conference byes, that's just another step towards college football turning into the NFL. Soon enough, Clemson and Miami will be out of the ACC. They'll pick off a few more teams as well. College football will essentially be consolidated to 30-40 teams in two different conferences, fighting for 12 playoff spots. They may even find a way to even out the schedules to the point that we don't need rankings at all. The 12 teams with the best record will make the playoffs. It will literally be the NFL. Yes that would "the most fair", but fuck that. College football isn't great because it's fucking fair.
I just really don't want to see the rest of college football become irrelevant. Or watch them play for some sort of lower level national championship. I know a lot of schools are basically irrelevant now... but not technically. Technically everybody has a chance. Everybody has hope. That's what makes college football great.
So hold strong college football. Don't let the ACC and Big 12 die. Don't keep getting bullied by the SEC and Big Ten. Don't let them consolidate the sport any more than it already is. It won't be good for college football.