McGraw: College football playoff headed in right direction, but one tradition has to go
Changes are happening quickly in college football.
Most of them are long overdue, like NIL (name, image, likeness) deals and an expanded playoff format. If NIL seems a little chaotic right now, the NCAA has only itself to blame, after fighting the idea of sharing wealth with players for so long.
"Oh no, we can't possibly give the players any money, we need it to cover the $50 million buyout for the coach we just fired."
"Our team will never stay competitive if we don't have a waterfall in the locker room, so there's no funds to spare."
The 12-team playoff, which is expected to arrive in 2024, will be another boon to the sport. In its current form, the College Football Playoff consists of two semifinal games, usually not competitive, sandwiched between several dozen meaningless bowl games with the best players off preparing for the combine.
So right from the start, this moves adds eight more meaningful games to bowl season. The first round will be held at campus sites, so the thought of Alabama visiting Columbus or State College in December adds a new level of intrigue. Ratings should soar.
But there are two more changes needed.
No. 1, get rid of the conference championship games. There was never much reason for these to exist besides a revenue bump, and they'll be even more pointless with the expanded playoffs.
This year provided some annoying examples. Georgia, Michigan and TCU had nothing at all to gain from their conference title games. USC might have made the playoff if it claimed the bus broke down and never showed up to the Pac-12 game.
It also makes some teams play an extra game before the playoffs, which makes no sense. The 12-team playoff rules will reportedly give the four first-round byes to teams that win their conference title.
What if Georgia somehow lost the SEC game this year? The Bulldogs would still make the playoffs, right? But now they're in the opening round of games and would have to play 17 over the full season to win the national championship?
TCU and Ohio State didn't win conference title games, so supposedly Utah and Kansas State would be the No. 3 and 4 seeds, which come with first-round byes. That messes up the bracket quite a bit, but OK.
This next issue is a little beside the point when it comes to the playoffs, but most conferences are switching to a one-division setup where the top two finishers play each other in the title game.
If that happened in the Big Ten, the last two conference title games would have been Michigan vs. Ohio State. A rematch, one week later, on a neutral field. Please never do that, Kevin Warren.
The other thing that's needed is to give players a share of the playoff revenue. Put it right into the next massive television contract.
Signing autographs for a couple hours or visiting a car dealership for NIL money is all well and good. But the NCAA should try to be proactive for a change, realize not only will this be legally required someday, it's also the right thing to do. If they don't like sharing money with the players, maybe college athletic directors should take a required course in how to avoid giving bad coaches massive buyouts.
Purists can argue about the value of a free college education, but how many players would be allowed to skip playoff practice to study for a chemistry exam? Exactly. College football is headed in the right direction, so just keep the cash moving.
Twitter: @McGrawDHSports