Just under a month ago the 2024 college football season wrapped up with Ohio State beating Notre Dame in the CFP national championship in Atlanta Georgia. 

This season marked the first time we as fans had a 12-team playoff that incorporated eleven teams from four different conferences around the college football world, as well as one independent via Notre Dame.

Some in the sports media world have claimed that even after only one year, the playoff needs major remodeling due to unfair seeding and poor game quality. 

However, I would contend that in its current format, this year’s playoff was the best ever thanks to the inclusion of new teams, which in turn made for a more dramatic and enthralling postseason, and the incorporation of on-campus matchups that created a better postseason atmosphere.

It seemed like for years teams like Alabama, Clemson, and Michigan would waltz into the previously held four-team playoff with ease and win a mismatched semi-final contest without breaking a sweat. This would not only lead to some pretty lop-sided national championship games, but also a large percentage of Americans becoming distraught at the sight of seeing the same teams win, over and over again.

This sentiment was even shared by Alex Hickey and “Saturday Down South,” an online publication specializing in SEC sports coverage way back in 2022. He wrote about the then-upcoming National Championship matchup of Alabama vs Georgia being like the film “Jaws: The Revenge,” claiming it was a sequel “nobody asked for.”

Because of the lack of intrigue and overall passion from viewers outside of the typical blue-blood fandom of college football, the CFP committee decided to change its format to serve a broader community. 

Therefore, thanks to the recent implementation of the twelve-team structure of the most recent College Football Playoff, we were able to witness some amazing games of teams we would have most likely never seen in the previously used four-team format. Thus, creating more parody and overall interest in the sport. 

Similarly, with the allowance for potential playoff teams to procure more than one loss throughout the season and remain eligible for a spot, like in the case of eventual National Champion Ohio State, fans were consistently glued to the games throughout the season. This also allowed dedicated supporters to not lose all faith when their Alma Mater lost a top-ten matchup in early October. 

Likewise, in most years a team like Arizona State, which has an entire athletics department operating budget of only $125 million, would very rarely get the chance to match up with a team like Texas, whose entire athletic department operating budget almost doubles the Sun Devils. But due to automatic conference champion bids and the mystery of a “march madness” type tournament, ASU was able to take the Longhorns into overtime in a thrilling Peach Bowl matchup despite eventually coming up slightly short in the end. 

Additionally, the playoff gave us on-campus playoff games in random but fun locations. 

Never before have college football fans seen a stadium roaring for a postseason game like in the case of Indiana versus Notre Dame. These unique venues showcase a side of the college lifestyle and fan culture that is rarely shown in a playoff setting. 

Despite these successes, however, some around the world of college football disagree with my thoughts. 

One of the main criticisms about the current playoff format comes from the way the CFP committee picks its participants. 

As previously mentioned, the top four ranked conference champions make up the one through four seeds in the bracket and receive an automatic bye to the quarterfinal round. The next eight selected are the following highest-ranked teams who have built up their resume throughout the season. The main issue with this is that a team like Boise State, which plays in the Mountain West conference, got a bye instead of a team like Texas which plays in the SEC. Some believe that in a head-to-head matchup, Texas would trounce a team like BSU and therefore should receive the bye instead, but because of the tournament’s structure, they had to play an extra game before making it to the quarterfinals. 

Many, like ESPN commentator and SEC supporter Paul Finebaum, have contended that strength of schedule needs to be considered over team record due to some schools having a theoretically easier path than others in more difficult conferences. 

Lane Kiffin, head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels also chimed in on this issue, tweeting throughout the first round of the CFP about this so-called “problem” (in an admittedly less articulate way). 

Despite these critics, we should reward those who win their respective conference championships and incentivize teams not to take any victories for granted. I also feel like picketing for a three-loss team like Ole Miss to make the playoffs is counterproductive and sad, especially when they didn’t make it to their conference championship game in the first place. 

All-in-all, this year’s CFP was one for the history books. And if we keep complaining about the small ways we can enhance the playoff in its current structure, we will cease to appreciate how this past season was purely euphoric for millions of fans throughout the country.