Unfortunately, it's that time of the year again. The time of year when ESPN rolls out the wheezing interim rankings from the incompetent College Football Playoff Committee and uses them as content fodder.
And that is all these are, just material to fill content hours on a 24 hour "sports" network that is more of a gossip rag now than anything else. Yes, ESPN still does good live sports content. They, sadly, dominate most of College Football, they put on some good College Basketball broadcasts and, without them, a ton of other College Sports would go all but unnoticed.
But, and this is important, the four-letter, Disney owned, network is an engine of destruction in College Sports. And they have set their sites on ruining College Football whether the fans like it or not. Case in point the CFP.
A couple of weeks back the Athletic (hid behind a firewall) ran a reader poll on fans attitude toward expanding the CFP to 24 teams. More than 80% of fans disapproved. Of course, ESPN trotted out their faithful mouthpieces to swear up and down on a stack of Bibles that ESPN was not the driver of this change. Then the Mouse House proceeded to plunk down $1.7 Billion dollars for exclusive broadcast rights. Rights that they can farm-out to other networks (for a profit one hopes) sure, but they own the CFP and to suggest that the CFP is not going to do their bidding is preposterous and requires a suspension of disbelief that even Trump could not hope to achieve.
And we haven't even gotten fully to the fact that the interim ratings are ridiculous. They're not based on "games played" but on "feel" and some mystery called "eye-test" which allows the committee to do silly things like place Tennessee (who beat Alabama) waaaaay behind the Crimson Tide and knocking Indiana down 9 spots despite them having an off-week.
Why do they do this?
Spoiler: It's not because this band of nit-wits truly believe this is where the teams should be ranked, although their belief in the mythical "SEC Gauntlet" (All Hail Coach SABAN!!!) is unwavering (and incorrect) what this is really about is giving the talking heads something to put in their mouths for the week. Instead of talking about the games and the rivalries and regional matchups College Football talk has devolved into "What is their path the the playoff?" or "Are they done?"
Yes it can be mildly fun to listen to some commentators lament the lack of intelligence in the CFP Committee room but eventually that gets tired. You can only hear former players and coaches talk badly about doddering old men for so long. It's like putting the Pat McAfee show on an endless loop. Eventually you just get tired of it all.
And, here's the rub. It's very possible that there are not 12 GOOD teams in the Country this year. At least, not Playoff caliber. Imagine how bad it's going to be NEXT year when the Playoff expands to 24 and they're debating which 4-5 loss SEC team should be included at the expense of a 2-loss ACC or BigXII team?
As for the Group of 6? Forget it. You get your 1 team, and pretty soon I'm sure they're going to take that away.
What this is leading to is the ultimate transformation of College Football into NFL-Lite. I predict the B1G and the SEC will, eventually, expand to 24 teams each, take their toys and walk away. They will sever fully from the NCAA and "College" Football will replace the UFL as the true minor-league feeder for the NFL.
What's left behind in the NCAA will continue to limp along, supported by ESPN+ until the House of Mouse decides they are no longer profitable and end that coverage. Don't believe me? Look at what has happened to FCS.
Last year you could find a multitude of FCS games streaming on ESPN+. Almost (but not quite) every game. It was fun, exciting football that often went late into the night as the West Coast teams had late kicks. This year? It's gone. You cannot find an FCS game almost anywhere on the streaming service, despite their multiple price increases.
There is no more "Pac 12 After Dark" on TV, or "Mountain West After Dark" or even Eastern Washington kicking off late against Idaho State. It's just not there anymore. Disney came in and decimated it. It's the same thing they're going to do to College Football.
Now, I'm not here to say that College Football is going to die. It's not, there will still be viewers for this, there will still be a TON of money to split among the 48 teams that make the Cut and most viewers will still turn in. But, and this is a big but, ESPN is risking losing the core fan of College Football, something NASCAR has learned is kind of a bad idea.
There will come a time when a not-insignificant portion of the audience just decides that they have better things to do on their Saturdays than watch a lesser version of the NFL when they can get their chores done, or other fun things, and watch the real deal on Sunday. Think about it, how many people are paying big bucks to watch the NBA G-League, or Minor League Baseball? Again, I'm not suggesting that Semi-Pro er..."College" football is going to sink that low, but it will be diminished from what it was.
The fault for that all lies at the feet of the College Football Playoff and ESPN. There is no escaping that fact.
Oh, the Georgia Bulldogs are ranked #1. But now you understand just how little that matters.
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