By Mark Blaudschun
It is championship week, which means the pageantry of college football will be on display with more meaning this season.
A new 12-team college football playoff is in place, with the five highest ranked conference champions gaining spots. The top four ranked conference champions will receive first-round byes.
The key here is the 12-team (potentially soon to be 16) tournament field.
With that in place, there is room for almost everybody, champions and runners up and beyond from the top-ranked conferences such as the Big Ten and SEC.
But unlike last season when a four-team playoff system existed, with the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Pac-12, Big 12 and SEC all vying for the four spots.
The problem was that all five champions deserved serious consideration, which left the committee with decision to leave out an unbeaten ACC champion Florida State.
With a 12- team playoff, that is no longer an issue.
But there are always unintended consequences and one is evident this season.
The conference championship games at the Power 4 (the Pac-12 is no longer a factor with only two teams) are almost meaningless.
Both Georgia and Texas, who play in the SEC title game on Saturday, will be in the playoffs.
The same can be said about the Big Ten, where Penn State and Oregon will be in the 12-team field.
But that raised other issues. Would it be better to finish third in a race, which will be good enough to make the tournament in the SEC or Big 10, than play in the conference championship game against a tougher opponent?
Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin created a firestorm a few weeks ago when he said the conference championship games were basically obsolete.
"I've talked to other coaches,'' said Kiffin, who is a long shot to make the tournament field on Sunday. "So I'll just kind of give you the feeling from some other coaches that they don't want to be in the SEC title game.
"You know the reward to get a bye versus the risk to get knocked out completely. I mean that's a pretty big risk. I think it has ended up being a very unique situation of all post season sports, the way the system is set up there. How you could get to the championship game and get knocked out of the CFP race. And if you don't get to the SEC championship game, you're in."
That won't happen in the SEC this year because Georgia, which already has two losses, found a way to beat Georgia Tech in eight overtimes in its last regular- season game.
The Bulldogs were in the SEC title game already before they played Georgia Tech, but if they had lost the Georgia Tech game and then followed it with a loss to Texas, their spot in CFP's Playoff would have been in serious jeopardy.
The ACC has a similar problem. The loser of the game between Clemson-SMU may be the loser is out scenario, which obviously gives the championship game more meaning.
But that appears to be the exception. In a 12-team field, the Power conferences will have multiple bids.
And with the bye system disappearing in a potential 16-team playoff field, there will be even less importance to a conference championship games.
There will be resistance to eliminating championship games, which will take some time to sort out, but look at the NFL, which has a pod system of teams which morphs into the NFL playoffs with the winner of each Division gaining spots and three wild cards from the AFC and NFC making the field.
That is the future of college football--like it or not.
For now, enjoy the weekend and the playoffs which will cap what has been the most entertaining regular season in the past 20 years.