Trojans Wire joined the Last Word on Sports media podcast to talk about a lot of different sports media subjects, including some items which related to college football, the Pac-12, and the Big Ten. You should listen to the podcast because we think it’s a good discussion of a lot of sports media issues, including several which relate to college football.
One of the especially good points made in this podcast on the topic of college football came from Ken Fang of Awful Announcing. He made the specific point that when we get to the 12-team College Football Playoff in 2024, the conference championship games aren’t going to mean what they used to.
He’s absolutely right. This makes complete sense.
When 11-1 Alabama plays 12-0 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, both schools will be assured of a berth in the 12-team playoff. Alabama could lose a second game and still be completely fine at 11-2. Alabama was 10-2 this past season and would have easily gotten into a 12-team playoff had it existed.
Conference championship games will cease to be “play-in” games for the playoff. The top two teams in the SEC and Big Ten will almost always be safely in the 12-team field. This has big implications for how the sport of college football needs to adjust in the 12-team playoff era.
The sport has to do something to respond to this shifting dynamic. We’ll offer ideas in future posts.
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