College and Georgia football are evolving. College football is searching for a new playoff structure, while Georgia is coping with coaching and player change. Georgia will overcome its obstacles just fine; college football’s future may not be bright.
The 12-team playoff will follow a 5+7 format, it was confirmed today. This is the fancy press release describing the new playoff structure.
Wonderful! We’ve solved our issues, and this new 12-team playoff structure will make everything right in the end! I’m kidding, though. The new playoff has a number of issues, which has made things worse. When Georgia lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship game by a mere three points, do you recall the sensation you got on Sunday morning? Prepare yourself for that sensation once more.
Thus, nothing was resolved. The issues with the current 5+7 format of the 12-team playoff that we encountered with the previous 6+6 format still persist. The Big Ten and SEC teams have no need to compete in conference finals. Why? Because those two leagues’ schedules are far more competitive than the ACC’s or Big
Under the four-team format, Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs had little issue qualifying for the College Football Playoffs, having made three trips since Smart took over in 2016. The Bulldogs would have had four more opportunities to compete for a national champion, though, if the new 12-team structure had been implemented, as it was officially accepted and declared on Wednesday.
Although the College Football Playoff Board of Managers revealed the 5-7 model, the qualification rules remained unclear despite the announcement of the 12-team CFP format expansion. The top five conference winners will automatically be considered for the CFP. The College Football Playoff committee will assign the next seven berths to the next seven highest-ranked teams.
“This is a very logical adjustment for the College Football Playoff based on the evolution of our conference structures since the board first adopted this new format in September 2022,” said Dr. Mark Keenum, president of Mississippi State and chair of the CFP Board of Managers.
The most significant of the changes he mentions was the demise of the Pac-12, which made room for the 5-7 model.
Leave a Reply