Big League Playoff Push

By Jim Gazzolo 

College football’s rich are making sure they are the ones getting richer in the future.

It’s the same old story but with a new twist.

Next December, when the college football playoffs kick off their newest era with 12 games, the big schools have made sure they are in good shape for title runs.

The College Football Playoff (CFP) Board of Managers unanimously revised the qualifying criteria for the new 12-team event on Tuesday. 

With the Pac-12 down to just two teams, for now, the Power 5 conferences are instead four. That means instead of the top six conference champs getting automatic berths to the postseason that number will be down to five, leaving seven at-large teams getting invited.

The Big Ten and SEC would like that number to change as well. They hope for a playoff of 14 teams with one each coming from their leagues. 

Having already left the NCAA behind long ago, the two most powerful leagues are concerned not about the games, players, or coaches, but rather their accounts. They want to control the money.

Soon enough the playoff will consist of 16 teams so we might as well go there right now and not mess around. But first, all parties must do the slow dance to make sure none of their friends get left behind.

For now, you can expect the seven at-large bids will come from the four big conferences.

What is a little puzzling is how the four top seeds, which will be given first-round byes, will be decided upon.

Instead of going to the top four ranked teams, instead, it will come down to what the committee wants, which is to protect the big schools.

The four byes will go only to the winners of the four big conferences. Win one of those leagues and you earn your ticket to the second round. That leaves out all the little schools trying to scratch their way to a shot at playing for the national championship.

Even Notre Dame, the best-known brand in all of college football, will struggle under the new playoff conditions. Under the new formula, the Irish could go 12-0, find themselves ranked No. 1 and still be no better off than any club outside the big four leagues. 

It’s hard to believe a perfect N.D. team would have to play in the first round while a 9-4 Kansas State crew would be automatically moved into the quarterfinals. 

Maybe part of the plan was to force Notre Dame into finally picking a conference to play in. 

What all this really shows is just who is running college football. It’s the big schools from the big conferences with their television partners. The little guys, and even some of the bigger ones, are being pushed to the side.

It all seems like a race to the end we all know is coming, when college football’s elite cut ties with the rest of the sport. 

Whether or not money is ruining college football can be debated, but one thing that can’t is the fact the mountain of cash being handed out has changed it forever.

Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese athletics. He is the host of Poke Nation on CBS-Lake Charles