It's easy to sit here and talk about "what should've been" and how things should look in the future. But, the reality, is that college football has become a sport consumed by money.
It's in the NIL collectives that we see every year. It's in the opinions coming from major personalities around the sport. It's in the coaches who are paid for their results. It's in the conferences that are more power-hungry than ever.
The traditions and college football of old is gone, and NFL lite is upon us. And, depending on where you fall on the spectrum, that's either a good thing or a poor thing. But, one thing is for certain: It's not going anywhere.
However, there is a simple solution to fix some of the problems we're seeing with the new College Football Playoff. It involves disbanding super conferences and going back to the traditional model that many of us grew up with.
This, of course, will never happen. But, it's the only way to solve the problem that Alabama and Ole Miss fans are still lamenting after the fact. Had the SEC not added Texas and Oklahoma, there may have been more spots for the conference. Alabama would likely have one less loss. The strength of schedules within the conference wouldn't be so lopsided — as we saw it favor Texas while hurting others.
It's not just the SEC that had this problem, either.
Clemson, SMU, and Miami — the three teams in the top of the ACC — never played each other during the regular season. A team like Louisville had to play all three of them.
While Ohio State had to play Oregon, Penn State, and Indiana, the Hoosiers only had to play the Buckeyes and they didn't even schedule tough out-of-conference games. Penn State and Oregon also had the luxury of not facing one another in the regular season.
The conferences have simply become too bloated. No matter where you look — whether it be the SEC, the Big Ten, the ACC, or the Big 12 — we see far too many issues across the board with these super conferences being formed. The teams aren't playing one another. No one has a direct path to even their conference championship game because there are no more divisions.
If college football is going to fix itself, we truly need to dissolve these super conferences and go back to the way things were originally with conferences.
If that's not going to happen — and believe me, it's not — then these conferences have to find a way to expand the playoff yet again and have set numbers for who makes the field. The "human aspect" of selecting a field is way too subjective to have that be your barometer. However, there is an argument to be made that strength of schedule — especially in the case of a team like Indiana that didn't schedule a single competitive out-of-conference game — should be considered.
Could we go to pods? Could we see the ACC eventually devoured and some of those teams join the SEC and Big Ten? No one can truly tell what's on the horizon, but it will be interesting nonetheless to see how these things play out, especially looking ahead to the 2026 season when the College Football Playoff will again be changed.