The College Football Playoff field is taking shape, and it doesn’t appear that the upcoming conference title games will have much of any impact on it.
These end of season contests used to pit the winners of two divisions, East v West or North v South. That had some allure, but like several other things, it all vanished when conference expansion and re-alignment gave use 18-team mega-conferences, and the decision was made to pit the top two finishers in the extra game. Top-ranked Ohio State and second-ranked Indiana didn’t play during the Big Ten’s regular season, and the Buckeyes didn’t face the third place team, Oregon, either. In fact, Indiana (which did beat Oregon) didn’t play the league’s fourth and fifth best teams, USC, Michigan, either. Ohio State missed not only the Hoosiers, but USC as well. They will play Michigan the final game of the regular season.
It’s common now for a conference champ to have missed playing several of the teams they end up battling with for the league’s top spot. Strange, but true.
And it doesn’t matter to the selection committee much if at all.
In the Big Ten and the SEC, all that matters is what they see on film and what results are on paper.
One Bid for the Big 12 and ACC…Again
The Big 12 and the ACC are looking like one-bid leagues once again, so yes, the winners of those games get in and the losers do not. But if those games didn’t get played, both those leagues would be sending the team that’s been their best during the regular season, Texas Tech and Miami.
No one could complain about that.
So when unbeaten Ohio State plays unbeaten Indiana in the Big Ten title game, and unbeaten Texas A&M plays fourth-ranked Georgia in the SEC title game, the results will matter very little in the rankings. There will be the possibility of some shuffling of the top four teams, all of whom are expected to get first round byes regardless.
Those two conference title games are merely (money making) exhibitions at this point.
And remember, last year’s national champion, Ohio State, played 16 games, went 14-2 and didn’t play in the Big Ten championship game.
Playoff Expansion is Coming Soon
Now we can add in the fact that there’s serious talk about the playoff expanding as soon as next year, to 16 or more teams. That would mean an extra (money making) game for those top four teams rather than them having a bye. It also means the eventual national champion could play as many as 17 games.
There is the concern about the longer layoff between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoff. Right now, those teams that do not get byes will have close to three weeks between the final regular season weekend and the first round playoff games. The four teams that will receive those first-round byes will have a full month off…unless any of them are playing in the conference title games, which will close those gaps by one week.
Advantage? Disadvantage?
If/when they expand the playoff to 16 teams, it will be a moot point and the conference title game will become totally meaningless. They can – and probably will – move the first round up by one week, and perhaps spread the games out more over the month of December. But that’s it.
Expect the playoff to expand, and the meaningless conference title games to vanish the same way many historic rivalries have. It’s a very new world in College Football.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post What is the Future of College Football Conference Title Games? appeared first on Heavy Sports.