Football in Georgia and college football are evolving. Georgia has to deal with player and coaching upheaval, and college football needs to find a…..
Today, it was announced that the 12-team playoff will be formatted in a 5+7 format. Here is the fancy PR jargon announcing the new playoff format.
Fantastic! Our problems are fixed, and this new 12-team playoff format will finally get it right! No, just kidding. There are several problems with the new playoff, which has only worsened matters. Remember that feeling you had Sunday morning when Georgia was left out of the playoff after losing to Alabama by only three points in the SEC Championship game? Well, get ready for that feeling again.
So, nothing was fixed. The problems we faced in the old 6+6 format of the 12-team playoff still exist with this new 5+7 format. There is no incentive for the SEC or the BIG 10 teams to play in conference championships. Why? Because the schedules of those two conferences are way more competitive than the ACC or Big 12. This idea of the automatic bids for the highest-ranked conference champions is idiotic! I can guarantee that whoever the 4th best SEC team is will be better than the ACC or the Big 12 champion.
Another point to the theory that conference championships will mean nothing in the 12-team playoff; look no further than last year’s Championship. Why would Alabama or Georgia even care to play the game when both will make the playoffs and some other team like Penn State is resting and watching these two giants kill one another?
The whole thing is flawed; honestly, I wish we returned to the old BCS era. Things seemed a lot easier and less convoluted than they do now. Also, do not fall for the ESPN trap. They are pushing this lie on all of us, saying how it will improve college football. Do you know who benefits from the playoffs? ESPN! Why? Because they are the only network with broadcasting rights to the playoff!
This will probably not affect Georgia in the short term, and if we are honest, this system might not even exist by the time we get to July. But if it does stay, we Georgia fans might soon be on the short end of the stick.
I may be the old man yelling at the clouds, but nothing has been fixed, and I just want college football’s regular season to matter still. College football is the only sport where its regular season matters so much, and now, with every new “improvement,” the regular season suffers. On top of that, so do non-playoff Bowl games.
Hopefully, someone with some logic will step into the room and fix all of this. Until then, we are looking at an NFL lite.
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