Sunday, December 08, 2019

As a follower I am not following the way that college tackle football decides its champion. This weekend were the conference championship games (Only conferences with 10 or more teams can have championship games) and they were largely a bore. The PAC12, SEC, ACC, and Mountain West championship games were boring blow-outs. The Big XII game went into overtime and the B1G game was reasonably close with Wisconsin leading at the half but here's the thing: both of the teams in both of those championship games already played each other once this season. Ohio State blew out Wisconsin in 'Umbus on October 26 and Oklahoma won another thriller over Baylor on November 16 in Wacko. I don't like Groundhog Day games. They devalue the regular season.

They do it of course because of money. An extra game, extra TV money, extra gate receipts; and they do it to better their chances of getting into the CFP where there is...rinse, repeat. Fortunately, the CFP championship game has not had Groundhog Day rematches from the regular season (give them time) but even with only five games played under their belts the CFP has had rematches from prior years. In only five championship games played Alabama and Clemson have met three times. Alabama has played a fourth championship game and then against another member of its same conference! The final CFP committee rankings will come out on Tuesday and there is no suspense to the field: Ohio State (2014), LSU, and Clemson (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018) are locks to make the field and Oklahoma (2015, 2017, 2018) a near-lock. It is no fun and even as a follower, I don't follow the playoff games closely. A lot of people are like me. CFP television viewership has not been the ratings bonanza envisioned.