Changes Coming to College Football We Won't Feel Until the Season Starts

Change has driven the sport of college football to a completely new era in 2024. The new 12-team CFB Playoff in an era of super conferences is bringing a new level of excitement to the sport, driving talking points this offseason. What we haven’t thought about is how it will change the way we talk about the sport once the football actually starts being played. Prepare yourself for a few things you will experience this fall.

More College Football Playoff Talk

ESPN is far from infallible, but one thing the four-letter network does well is listen to its fans. In 2022 they heard complaints that they spent too much time discussing the CFB Playoff too early in the season. They made a concerted effort to dial back CFB Playoff talk until later in the season and kept their promises, making it more enjoyable to watch their programming until the Playoff was on the horizon in late October.

That’s all going to go away this year. With more teams vying for more CFB Playoff spots, it will give the four-letter network an excuse to spend more time discussing their most valuable broadcasting property earlier in the season. If college football fans become nauseated by the phrase “CFB Playoff,” you better stock up on Dramamine in October.

Fewer Undefeated College Football Teams

Excluding the shortened COVID season, in four of the nine CFB Playoffs there were multiple undefeated teams. The days of multiple undefeated teams competing for a National Championship are going by way of the dodo bird.

The growth of Power Conferences to between 16-18 teams is eliminating divisions. There was always one division weaker than the other. In recent years that was the Big Ten West and SEC East. Playing a weaker schedule in a weaker division is a thing of the past. Georgia could be the best team in the sport this fall and enter the CFB Playoff with two losses. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it may take some time for folks to adjust.

More Scoreboard Math

Using the transitive property is a hilarious way to fire up a fan of another’s team but a terrible way to actually judge a program. For example, my 24-year-old high school PE teacher was an Ohio State fan. When the Buckeyes lost to LSU in the 2007 National Championship Game, we let him know that Kentucky was better than Ohio State that season because the Cats actually beat the Tigers. Was that true? No. Did it send him into a long, fiery rant that we still talk about more than 15 years later? Yes.

With the rise of more CFB Playoff talk, college football fans will be playing more scoreboard math to justify their program’s spot in the Top 12.

Ole Miss and Missouri enter the season with CFB Playoff hopes but they do not play one another. They’ll probably be ranked similarly when the calendar turns to November. One fanbase will argue their program is better because their team beat Oklahoma at home by more points. It’s an invalid argument, one we will see pop up more often than ever before.

The Big Ten on CBS

We spent last year enjoying CBS’ college football jingle alongside SEC highlights for one final season. Even though we’ve mentally prepared for it, there’s no way to brace for impact once that iconic intro is followed by an array of Iowa punts.

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