In the end, there wasn’t drama. There wasn’t controversy or chaos. There wasn’t a moment when you wondered what teams would be selected to the College Football Playoff.
I have wanted these moments since the playoff inception. When the rankings finally mattered, thanks to a few losses over the past few weeks, conference championships offered very little in terms of intrigue when it came to these results.
Sure, USC losing to Utah in the Pac-12 Championship was a moment. But it wasn’t controversial. The Trojans fell, Ohio State rose and the postseason was set in that moment. Unless TCU lost by 50 points to Kansas State, we were done here.
The argument against expanding the postseason has been straightforward: It will water down the regular season. But if conference championship weekend is mundane, how exactly is the current format thriving? (It isn't.)
A 12-team playoff, which is officially coming in 2024, would have featured the following.
Georgia, Michigan, Clemson and Utah would have earned byes as a result of winning their conference. The rest of the first round would look like this: No. 5. TCU vs. No. 12 Tulane, No. 6. Ohio State vs. No. 11. Penn State, No. 7. Alabama vs. No. 10 USC, No. 8. Tennessee vs. 9 Kansas State.