This college football championship weekend will be the best in the 10-year history of the college football playoff.
Seven of the 10 teams in the Power 5 championship games have legitimate CFP hopes. Four enter undefeated, but one is a significant underdog and another is favored by less than a field goal. Every game will have different levels of a win-or-go-home feel, and Ohio State fans are going to spend the weekend rubbing their buckeye necklaces hoping Louisville and Oklahoma State pull upsets and Georgia, Michigan and Washington stay undefeated.
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Championship weekend has historically been somewhat uneventful, mostly because many of the matchups were uneven mismatches and the playoff field was generally set. Three times, the top four teams entering championship weekend remained unchanged. Five times, three of the four teams remained unchanged and only one year saw two teams enter the bracket after championship weekend when ranked outside the top four beforehand.
This year, who knows? Everyone from No. 1 (Georgia) to No. 8 (Alabama) has hope. There is a scenario where we have No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Washington and No. 4 Florida State stay undefeated and we have no changes. And we have a scenario where all four lose and the committee could put four new teams in the final bracket.
It is going to be fun, it is going to be wild and some fear it will be the last of its kind with the 12-team playoff on the way. To this, I say fear not! We are just getting started.
12-team playoff will improve championship weekend
Championship weekend will be significantly enhanced by the 12-team playoff. One year from now the only part of the weekend that will be diminished will be the lack of the traditionally highly competitive Pac-12 championship game. That is a significant drawback caused by the greediness of realignment, not the 12-team playoff.
So how will next year’s championship weekend be enhanced? The conferences will all have eliminated divisions by then, meaning we will not have to snooze through another Big Ten West team getting smoked by a Big Ten East team. All four Power 4 title games should have both teams ranked in the top 15 at worst. That means every team will be battling for one of the 11 playoff spots reserved for Power 4 teams.
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The teams on the bubble will be fighting for a way into the playoff field. The teams in the middle will be fighting for a first-round home game. The teams at the top will be fighting for a first-round bye, meaning it takes just two wins to get to the national title game instead of three. And remember - you MUST win your league to earn a bye.
Like this year, there will be stakes in every league championship game moving forward. With the top four seeds getting a bye, that puts a big value on, say, an SEC championship game between Georgia and Texas (I know, that will take a little getting used to). Teams seeded Nos. 5-8 get to host a playoff game. There will only be four campuses a year that get to do that with the quarterfinals scheduled for neutral sites. And the Nos. 9-11 seeds, teams that are going to likely be 10-win teams or more, are just trying to get a bid. This isn’t mediocre college hoops team hoping for that last at-large bid. Using this year, we’re talking Penn State, Missouri, Ole Miss and Oklahoma, teams that are all capable of winning a postseason game (especially when that first round game will not come against a top four seed). It is going to be much more difficult to make the 12-team playoff than some fans realize. A few programs that would miss out this year? Try Notre Dame, Clemson, LSU and USC for starters.
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This weekend is going to feel different than almost any championship weekend that has come before it, with potentially three straight days of tension, excitement and the overuse of words ‘eye-test’, ‘resume’ and ‘four best teams’. By the time 2023’s bracket is revealed on Sunday, College Football Nation will be spent.
Championship weekend is going to be an exhilarating end to the regular season and a great springboard into the postseason. And now it will be an annual event.
