12-Team CFP First Weekend Breakdown

There was a common misconception for a lot of fans about what the 12-team playoff would offer. The main promise was more meaningful games, which was carried out through the regular season and with the first round. The part where fans were mistaken, was that the promise of more meaningful games meant more exciting, better, and competitive games. Unfortunately, we went 0-4 with close games this weekend. Every margin of victory was double digits, every favorite/home team won, and every game was a matchup of two teams that were on different levels. Let’s breakdown what we saw this past weekend.

Starting in South Bend and finishing in Columbus, we experienced great energy from all 4 campuses. Penn State had their treasured white out energy, which led to SMU being overwhelmed especially on offense, and helped Penn State to a blowout win. Tennessee fans promised all week that they would travel to their game, and that might’ve been the only thing from Knoxville to show up as the Buckeyes routed the Volunteers 42-17. The In-state show down between the Irish and the Hoosiers proved that Indiana may have had a great season, but they were still not at the elite level yet. Then in Austin, the only positive Dabo can take away from that game is that he did get to meet Matthew McConaughey, with Texas’s offense getting their swagger back with a 38-24 win.

The good of the weekend: The on-campus environments were great and there was a true home-field advantage. I think this will prove to be a major factor in years to come, but home-field advantage cannot be taken for granted and should be immensely valued. The added benefit of that is 2/4 teams were conference championship losers, which will put importance on making the conference championship game. Another pro of the weekend is that all favorites won, so that will set up the proposed best matchups for the next round and allow the teams that proved they were worthy of their higher ranking continue their path to a potential National Title. The last added benefit is this weekend proved that the bye is still meaningful. Unfortunately, Captain Defensive Lineman for the Irish, Rylie Mills was injured, and there is nothing good about that for the player, his family, or his team. This however shows that there is always added risk to playing an extra game and injuries can happen and hurt your team.

The bad of the weekend: The most important part, the games. None of the games were competitive which is having people question if we ever needed a 12-team playoff to decide the Champion. It’s sparked with if the committee got it right or wrong with the teams they put in, and to that here’s what I will say: Ole Miss and Alabama have top 5 rosters in college football, but they proved they were unable to win 4 games in a row against Power 4 opponents. With that theory, they should have been omitted, and SMU and Indiana should have been selected. Who cares about the hypotheticals or about the conference strength, if you have 3 losses you should not be thinking that will prove to a committee that you are worthy of the playoff spot. However, I think the SOS fans gained ground this weekend, and in the future that will play a factor, but not for 3 loss teams against 2 or 1 loss teams. That will only come into play when there is a 2-loss team with a better SOS then a 1 loss team. Another con of the weekend is that the on-campus games are now done for this playoff, which I think should be changed moving forward. I know there will be complaints about this for people that are still holding on to Bowl Tradition, but especially if the format changes where there are no auto bye’s only auto bids, the teams that finish in the top 4 should be awarded with byes and a home field advantage for their first game.

Overall, the first 12 team playoff is serving its purpose. Since playoff expansion is here, and it appears there will only be teams added, not subtracted, this weekend will be used as a road map moving forward. The first year of anything is never perfect, so I expect there will be changes to the format, but as annoying as it may be to hear all of the complaints, I have 2 things to say. 1) It is necessary for people to voice their opinion, because without that we would never get it right, or as close to right as possible. 2) This has increased the coverage of College Football, by national media, independent content creators, and the average fan. The 12-team playoff’s main intention was more money by the National Media sold as a more accurate way to elect our National Champion. But what it really has done is instill hope in a massive amount of fan bases, and hope is all fans require. So please, have some grace with how this first year plays out, and if you were against playoff expansion put your guns down and accept that this is the new norm, embrace what the 12-team playoff is and try to enjoy what you can about the most amazing sport.