After the Oregon Ducks defeated Washington, Dan Lannings stated it best.
This College Football Playoff will resemble March Madness more than any grass-field event we have ever witnessed.
Hey, it sounds fantastic. The NCAA Tournament is something we all adore.
However, a regrettable incident occurred during the trial phase of the 12-team playoff in its inaugural year. The committee unintentionally prioritized headline games and possible upsets over ensuring the top team won the national championship by designing a system that leaned too much toward that early spring hoops spectacular.
Is that Oregon?
For them to succeed, it will have to be.
Look, I’m not attempting to justify the Ducks in advance.The assumption should be that they win it all, as I stated following their victory over Penn State in Saturday’s Big Ten title game, 45-37. It would be disastrous to go 13-0 against a team as talented and physically fit as this one and lose in the Rose Bowl. This team must be held to a greater standard and expectation than that.
However, there is a problem with the way this system has operated in Year 1.
The Ducks’ best chance of finishing last would be to defeat Georgia, Texas, and Ohio State consecutively.
Or the top three SEC teams if the Buckeyes collapse.
In that case, Dan Lanning’s Oregon squad would be the most worthy national champion in the sport’s history. Complete halt.
Instead of offering us a playoff, they made college football into Survivor.
I anticipate that Lanning and his group will up to the task. However, that doesn’t lessen how dangerous it is.
At the very least, though, it will be fantastic TV.
It was obvious that the 2024 national champion would face a challenge unlike any other at the FBS level as a result of the extended playoffs. That was obvious. However, an unproven system and an extremely unpredictable season for the entire sport have effectively made Oregon’s impressive 13-0 run irrelevant.
If Arizona State and Boise State can both earn the same reward by winning the two weakest conferences that received automatic bids, then a first-round bye is not enough motivation to sweep the regular season.
I didn’t consider the possibility that the Ducks might have had an easier time as the No. 5 seed if they had lost to Penn State on Saturday. However, this method failed since we even need to pose the issue or think about the ramifications.
Going forward, the top four teams must receive byes. The committee basically flipped the bracket, shifting the balance of power, by giving the third and fourth seeds to Boise State and ASU, which were placed No. 9 and No. 12 in the final rankings.
Teams in the middle now should be close to the top. Texas, ranked third, is the fifth seed and will play a Clemson squad that back-doored its way into the playoffs at home instead of getting a bye.
Texas will likely face Oregon in the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, but they only need to defeat the Tigers and Arizona State to go to the semifinals.
That would be a neutral website. The same goes for a possible rematch at Mercedes-Benz Stadium against Georgia.
I guess these are nice problems to have if you’re from Oregon. You are the nation’s best team. This implies that you need to be able to defeat any opponents. Theoretically, however.
It’s not that I don’t think the Ducks can defeat Georgia in the trenches, score against Texas, or win a rematch with Ohio State.
I believe they are capable of all those things. It becomes intimidating when you have to do all three in a single month.
However, the Ducks’ goal remains the same despite this treacherous route: to win.
And if we’ve learned anything about tournaments from March Madness, it’s that things seldom turn out the way you expected.
The most difficult road might easily turn into the best one.
–Bill Oramis, The Oregonian/OregonLive’s sports columnist.
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