The ‘Alliance’, the ill-fated gentleman’s agreement between the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12, set the standard for stupidity among the leadership of college football. It meant nothing and accomplished nothing – except kicking over the first disastrous domino to undermine what finally looked like a promising college football postseason.
The refusal to vote for the original, sensible 12-team playoff format in 2022 (the vote was 8-3 in favor but lost because unanimity was required) kicked the can down the road to 2024 and indirectly led to the collapse of the Pac-12 and now a sudden need to re-format the yet-to-be seen 12-team iteration. Yahoo Sports called it one of college sports’ greatest failures.
With that in mind, it is time to use the Alliance as a grading scale for the stupidity of the latest College Football Playoff proposal that is being ‘socialized’ among decision-makers at the highest levels of college football.
Automatic bids for non-champions
Stupidity grading scale - 5 Alliances
The wonderful CBS Sports national college football writer Shehan Jeyarajah nailed the SEC and Big Ten’s quest to secure more guaranteed spots in the CFP with a perfect two-word description on the College Football Survivor Show podcast – loser behavior.
I was asked inside the Sporting News office a few weeks ago what I thought of the new SEC-Big Ten ‘joint advisory group’. I was hopeful that by reducing the number of voices in the room, sensible leaders would look out for the greater good of the sport. I am no longer hopeful.
The Big Ten and SEC already have by far the biggest television contracts. They have gobbled up whatever programs they’ve wanted over the past three years (Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington, USC, UCLA). Now they insist they are better than the other two conferences before any games have been played every single season, and therefore their third-place teams deserve an automatic bid to a 14-team playoff.
Nine times out of 10, the second and third place team from either conference is going to get an at-large. Do you really need to put pen to paper so the college football world understands you are bigger and better? Just stop. We don’t need a weird warning shot that you will eventually leave the NCAA and create a two-conference conglomerate that will be NFL Lite. We all know this is somewhere down the road.
And, of course, the domino effect of this is the ACC and Big 12 will get two automatic bids. Why? Most of the time it will work out, but there will be years second-place in one or both of these leagues is 8-4 when all is said and done. Why knowingly guarantee a non-champion over a team ranked higher? Why box yourself in like that?
The Power 4 champs plus the best G5 champ get in. Add nine at-larges. Do not overcomplicate with a 3-3-2-2-1, which feels like the countdown to an implosion rather than the celebration of the sport.
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Seeding the four best conference champions 1-4
Stupidity Grading Scale - 4 Alliances
The seeding issue is already in place with the 12-teamer, but it is worth a mention. Knowingly mis-seeding teams is illogical. The NCAA basketball tournament awards auto-bids, then seeds the teams 1-through-68. Why does college football have to reinvent the wheel?
The auto-bid gets you into the field. Obviously, a Power 4 champion will be in a 12-team field, so the reward for winning a conference title is mitigated. But a conference title hasn’t meant anything the last 10 years other than a nice boost to the resume, so what’s the difference?
The fourth-best conference champion is not going to be ranked higher by the selection committee than the second-best teams in the SEC and Big Ten. Yet they are going to get a first-round bye in the 12-team format and a more favorable first-round matchup in the 14-team format than a team ranked higher than them.
Makes. No. Sense.
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College Football Playoff competing with the NFL
Stupidiy Grading Scale - 3.5 Alliances
I’ve discussed the calendar situation in the past, and for those of you who haven’t read or don’t remember (how could you?!?!), the summation is – in a four-round format, play the games on the first three Saturdays in December, and hold the national championship Super Bowl-style on January 1.
Get as far as possible away from the NFL playoffs, the NFL’s Week 18 do-or-die regular season games and the Black Monday follow up. Celebrate the culmination of your sport on the day most identified with college football - January 1. Make the CFP the priority and work everything else around that, rather than trying to squeeze the CFP around other factors.
The 11 games of the much-anticipated 12-team playoff will take place on the following days of the week this season – Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday from Dec. 20 to Jan. 20. Even die-hard fans are going to have a hard time knowing when the games are.
Compare that to Saturday, Saturday, Saturday in December, then Jan. 1. Which one is clearer?
When the 12-team concept was introduced, there was almost universal excitement. A tweak here and there might be needed (more on-campus games, for one), but generally speaking, it was a sensible proposal that had the potential to add a little March Madness spirit into the college football postseason. Then the Alliance came along, all angry they were not involved in the construction of the proposal, and now here we are. An expanded postseason is coming for the foreseeable future, but it is not going to be as good as it should be.