Between the tradition and progression, youth and experience, strategy and randomness, skill and luck, excitement and deafening silence, and pageantry, college football is arguably the greatest sport in America, quite possibly the world. The coverage of it, however, may be the worst of any sport.
In every major professional sport, the best teams reach the playoffs; play in a tournament; and at the end of the day, only one team remains. There's never any talk about polls, where the coaches or media ranked the New Orleans Saints or Chicago Bulls, etc. It's all settled on the field (or court or rink or whatever). Even in college basketball and baseball, while some politicking goes on, large tournaments tend to leave little question of who the best team was at season's end. That's not the case with college football. While the product on the field itself is arguably the best in the world, there's so much politicking going on, one could swear they were in the middle of an election year, and that always threatens to ruin a great season. Sadly, this politicking starts on the first game's opening kickoff. Actually, it starts even before then, as prior to any team playing a single game, the media and coaches rank the teams in a preseason top 25 poll, but I digress.
Most college teams, with a handful of exceptions, have played one of twelve regular season games. Following week 1's games over Labor Day weekend, analysts were already suggesting the following:
- The best two teams are in the SEC.
- Several 1-0 teams have zero chance to make the 4-team playoff.
- The ACC and Pac-12 will be hard-pressed to get any team into the playoffs.
- If Oklahoma doesn't make it, the Big XII won't see a team of theirs represented in the playoff.
- The Heisman Trophy finalists are X, Y, and Z.
This both amazes and annoys the ever living crap out of me. Week in and week out, we're told that college football is the greatest sport in the world, largely due to its unpredictability. These are 18- to 22-year-old kids (for the most part). Who knows when one of them will have an off-game due to a poor night's sleep; a break-up; struggles in the classroom; or a hangover? Who knows about the weather? The crazy tip/bounce? The officiating (a missed call)? An injury? Critical penalties or turnovers? We're fed this narrative on a weekly basis, yet once the games are finished for the weekend, we're also basically told that, at the end of this allegedly Hitchcockian-twist of a season, the conclusion will be as predictable as a 5%-fresh-rated-on-Rotten-Tomatoes romantic comedy. Look, based on the history of the college football playoff, they may be right, but they don't know that at this current time; no one does.
The sad fact of the matter is, in the seven years the college football playoff has existed, just eleven different teams have been selected:
1. Alabama (six times)
2. Clemson (six times)
3. Ohio State (four times)
4. Oklahoma (four times)
5. Notre Dame (two times)
6. Florida State (one time)
7. Georgia (one time)
8. LSU (one time)
9. Michigan State (one time)
10. Oregon (one time)
11. Washington (one time)
Still, we're 1+ week(s) into the season! UCLA is 2-0, with a win over then #16 and favored LSU. What do they have to show for their efforts? A #18 ranking. Clemson is 0-1. They have lost their only game of the season thus far. What's their rank? #6. Yes, rankings will shift as the season progresses, but this just goes to show how much politicking is involved in the sport. Just think if this were any major pro sport. Can you imagine analysts suggesting that an 0-1 Pittsburgh Steelers had a better shot at the postseason than a 2-0 Buffalo Bills? Doesn't make a lick of sense, does it? It's just one week, but several unbeaten teams who have impressed me a great deal thus far (the aforementioned UCLA Bruins, along with Mississippi, and Iowa, among others), allegedly have no legitimate path to the playoff. Apparently, even before the season starts, only a select few have a shot at the 4-team playoff: Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Clemson, Texas, LSU, Penn State, Michigan, North Carolina, USC, and Oregon. This isn't right; it isn't fair; and I wish it would stop.
Teams shouldn't be judged before they take a snap; they should be judged by their product on the field. The SEC and Big Ten should not be viewed with favorable lenses; every team should be treated equally. It's ironic, for universities nationwide are branded as "liberal," yet college football has, in many ways, become an oligarchy. It's time to change that.
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