Another year of the CFB Playoff is in the books, and boy was it a stinker. I am talking about the semi-finals, because the championship happens on Monday. This year we got some potential awesome matchups between Cincinnati and Alabama, and then Georgia and Michigan.
The games were both predictable, as Bama won by 21 and Georgia won by 23. Another year, more blowouts. I liked the Playoff in its inaugural year, when number 4 Ohio State won it all. But now, the tournament is a pointless race between two horses, and sometimes not even a race. If you are an Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, Ohio State, or possibly a Notre Dame or Oklahoma fan, this article is directed at your teams.
Let's start off with the literal elephant in the room, the Crimson Tide that is. Alabama has now appeared in 6 of 8 of the CFB Playoff National Championships. I expect ‘Bama to repeat this year, and possibly next year. At this point, hand them the trophy in the preseason. Alabama dominates the regular season and playoff almost every year. Sometimes there will be a surprise like 2019 LSU or 2014 OSU, but besides those fluke years, it's a one-dog fight.
All those teams I listed all have something in common: they continuously get top recruiting cycles. Recruiting is the name of the game in college football, and without it success is impossible. Alabama dominates the recruiting game as well, although they may not have the number one class every year, they get the recruits they need and Saban does a good job of sniffing out the best recruits. Look at their past receivers for example. Two years ago, ‘Bama lined up Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, and Devonta Smith. Even this year they have two potential first-rounders in Jameson Williams and John Metchie.
The fact of the matter is that smaller-scale schools outside of the top 5 cannot compete on or off the field. No matter how long we argue about expanding the playoff, it won’t matter. The CFB Playoff is no better than the BCS, and expanding it will not do much for the game itself. It would make the CFB postseason much more entertaining, and possibly bring a college football Cinderella story.
The Playoff has divulged into a tournament of blowouts, and aside from a game or two here and there (looking at you, 2019 Fiesta Bowl), none of the games are even semi-entertaining. In the preseason, I took a look at the top 25 and attempted to analyze which teams could live up to the hype. But the truth is, that none of that matters, it is just pure fodder. It is fun to speculate about which teams could come out of nowhere, but in reality it just doesn’t happen.
College football is still awesome, I am not debating that, but the way in which we determine a winner is not, and will never be. At the end of the day, dynasties will reign.
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