We’re one year into the College Football Playoff era and college football is already irrevocably changed. No one can deny the excitement – or the financial gain – that the College Football Playoffs generated last year. But that excitement comes at a price.
That price is the essence of college football.
A Cautionary Tale for College Football Fans: The 2007 New York Giants
This cautionary tale starts in the summer of 2007. The New England Patriots broke training camp with eight players who will finish the season as Pro-Bowlers and nine players who will finish the season as All-Pro. The team will win ten games by 21 points or more and win only four by less than ten points. They beat five of the eleven other teams in the playoffs during the regular season; which is half of their non-Divisional schedule. Most importantly, they would win every single game during the regular season. To recap, they won all of their games. They won 62.5% of those by 21 points of more. They played 50% of their non-Divisional schedule against other playoff teams.
They were clearly, without a doubt, the best team in the NFL.
Except they aren’t, at least according the history books.
You see, in the NFL, what you do in the regular season doesn’t really matter. Go ahead, name the other four teams that previously held the record for most regular season wins. Hint: the 1972 Dolphins aren’t one of them. The best team is the team that wins the Super Bowl. Period. End of story. Not even partisan Patriots fans will argue this point. That’s what the NFL is. When you are a fan of an NFL team you don’t tout regular season success. The regular season is for player statistics and teams to get into the playoffs. 16-0, 12-4, or 8-8. As long as you get into the playoffs, you still have a chance to be the best.
So the champions of the NFL for the 2007 season? The second place team from the NFC East Division, the New York Giants.
A good team certainly. Deserving? Yes. Super Bowl Champions, for sure. But the best team that season? Not even close.
This isn’t to say the regular season is meaningless. The regular season is important. It’s important because it’s the path to the playoffs. But it’s not the path to the championship. The playoffs are the path to the championship. And that’s OK for the NFL, where 37.5% of the teams get into the playoffs. 37.5% of 32 teams.
And it’s not just the NFL.
Do you know the difference between the Conn Smythe Trophy, the President’s Trophy, and the Stanley Cup in the NHL? No one cares about the President’s Trophy except the people that raise the banners in the arena. It’s Lord Stanley’s cup or bust.
Most wins in Major League Baseball’s regular season or the Commissioner’s Trophy? Ask Billy Beane what regular season wins get you.
Larry O’Brien or most regular season wins. Ask the San Antonio Spurs how important regular season wins are in the NBA.
But that’s not the essence of college football. The essence of college football revolves around the sanctity of the regular season. Not until 1968 did the AP start awarding their championships after the bowls. The championships were based exclusively on the regular season. The bowls were viewed almost as exhibitions. Rewards for teams and players for good seasons. Of course, that has evolved over the past 40 years.
The completely arbitrary and unfair college system works because you simply cannot have schedule parity, a balanced playoff, and a playoff system in college football. And that’s OK.
There are too many teams. Just in the Power 5 conferences (plus Independents), there are 67 teams. More than twice as many as in the NFL. And that’s OK.
And the parity will never be the same. The difference between the best team in the NFL and the worst is generally a few injuries, a bad draft and a quarterback. The margin isn’t that great. Unless you are the 2007 New England Patriots. But in college football, Army and Vanderbilt and Northwestern and Virginia and a handful of other teams will never be a consistent winner like USC, Oklahoma, Alabama and Ohio State. They might have a few good years here and there, but will never have the dynasties that those programs have. And that’s OK.
College football is a regionally-based sport, owned by the conferences. For this reason, the schedules can never be constructed to provide for equitable playoff inclusion. In the NFL, 62.5% of a team’s schedule is out-of-Division (the Division are the teams that a given team is most directly competing against for a playoff spot). In college, that range is somewhere between 25% (9-game conference schedule) and 33% (8-game conference schedule). College football is a system built upon regional competition. This dates back to it’s true intercollegiate days. It is not a system that can be shaped to provide for a logical and efficient playoff system. And that’s OK.
Lastly, the NFL is a centralized organization of franchised clubs ran by the iron-hand of the league. It has to be that because it’s a business geared to maximize profits for the owners. College football is not that. It’s a loose confederation of the conferences used to market their schools and generate enough money to fund their athletic programs. With all seriousness, these are still 18- to 24-year old young men who (for the overwhelming most part) actually do go to classes and have other responsibilities. Again, this is a system that is inherently antithetical to a playoff-style championship. And that’s OK.
The bottom line is that the college football system just isn’t designed to enable a real playoff system. And that’s OK.
Ours is a game that celebrates every game. With tailgates and bow ties under shade in The Grove. The Vol Navy BBQing in the shadow of the General on the bank of the Tennessee River. A lucky tuba player being the dot of an “i”. Wearing different uniforms every game. We celebrate and cherish every game. Every. Single. Game. And that’s OK.
We celebrate the teams like the Patriots rather than teams like the Giants. And that’s OK.
You see, college football is not all about the championships. It’s more about the competition. It’s more about the game than about the money. It’s more about youth than professionalism. It’s a game played by students not millionaires. It’s more about the school than the city. It’s more about emotion than X’s and O’s. If soccer is the beautiful game, then college football is the emotional game. And that’s OK.
So as we prepare for another great college football season, let’s remember the roots of our sport. Let’s take the time to the get back in touch with the regionalism and the imperfections of college football. Let’s remember that our system is not the NFL and that’s OK. Let’s remember that ours is a perfect system built on imperfection, designed to make a few happy and frustrate many more, a sport for the hearts not the heads, played by boys who look like men, not men who act like boys. And that’s more than OK; that’s awesome.
Main Photo: GLENDALE, AZ – FEBRUARY 03: David Tyree #85 of the New York Giants catches a 32-yard pass from Eli Manning #10 against Rodney Harrison #37 and James Sanders #36 of the New England Patriots attempts to knock it out in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLII on February 3, 2008 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The Giants won 17-14. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
