The emphasis placed on making the College Football Playoff long-term may hurt the overall strength of non-conference games.
We've already seen Nebraska cancel a home and home series with Tennessee, and last year we saw Wake Forest back out of a series with Ole Miss. We have even seen programs talking about cancelling rivalry games, with USC talking about cancelling their yearly game against Notre Dame.
When the playoff field was announced in December we saw the SEC commissioner threaten programs dropping tough out of conference games in order to help their chances getting into the playoff. I get the sentiment behind that possible action, despite none of the losses that kept Alabama, South Carolina, or Ole Miss out of the playoffs came from outside the SEC. What happened to the old idea of teams saying they will play anybody anywhere?
A lot of conferences and schools looking to stay away from big non-conference matchups look at teams like Indiana who had one of the worst strength of schedules last year, but made the playoff. There is also the argument that not all losses are the same, and possibly an SEC loss carries more weight than when an SMU or a Clemson lose a game in the SEC.
Again in 2025 the Hoosiers have a terrible out of conference schedule, so again if they have the success in conference that they had last year, there is a good chance they will again be part of the 12 team playoff. In defense of the Hoosiers, if it were Michigan or Ohio State with their non-conference schedule nobody would bat an eye.
Coaches and athletic directors seem to fear the chances of losing a big game rather than the rewards of winning a big game. If Nebraska were to have played Tennessee and won the game it would do wonders for their playoff chances, but the Huskers feel like it is too much of a risk with how tough their schedule already is in Big 10.
As a life long fan of the game I live to see big non-conference games to start the season and the games we get every year at the end of the season during rivalry weekend. With the expansion of the college football playoff there seemed to be a much more national interest in college football, however the only way to keep this from going back to more of a regional interest is for schools to schedule big non-conference games. People much rather see Alabama play Florida State or Ohio State and Texas playing rather than these teams opening with a non-power four game or an FCS opponent.