The Win Column: Will expanded CFP be good for the soul?

Hope y’all had a lovely weekend, despite all the losing around here.

Now please indulge me a bit while I attempt to rationalize ESPN’s plans to double the size of the College Football Playoff.

FANDOM IN THE 24-TEAM ERA

Expanding to a 24-team College Football Playoff next season is, at a minimum, wildly unnecessary. Schools don’t really benefit. The networks don’t either, and many traditional bowl games will presumably bid adieu.

On the other hand, maybe it’ll end up saving us.

Let me explain.

Georgia became the nation’s No. 1 team last week … and then promptly embarrassed itself. At home. Against an unranked rival of 134 years or so.

Major Bulldog bummer, but it doesn’t particularly matter.

Florida, Ole Miss and Missouri await after a much-needed bye week. If Georgia drops another game this season, it might find itself in danger of missing the 12-team College Football Playoff.

Might.

• A historically loony weekend saw five of the AP poll’s top seven teams lose.
• Everybody in the SEC now has at least one loss. Only one Big Ten team (UCLA) remains undefeated.
• The inaugural 12-team playoff included eight teams with at least two losses. Last season’s tourney had four.

Now picture things with 24 teams in the mix.

If your team is any version of a Power Five power player, the playoff conversation gets real anticlimactic real quick.

So how is that a good thing?

Saturday’s slate of games reminded us of everything we love about college football: Upsets, near-upsets and general wackiness; pageantry, pride and good old-fashioned heartbreak. (We’ll talk about the officiating another time.)

A bigger playoff lowers the ceiling for the “importance” of any one contest. The pre-selection debates about three- or four-loss SEC squads and some team no one actually watches will prove incredibly tiresome, too.

• “Moving forward, a loss like Saturday’s means even less,” DawgNation’s Connor Riley wrote. “And if the pain isn’t the same, is the joy in beating a team like Auburn as great moving forward? These are the types of questions college football administrators don’t seem to care about or ponder as they continue to carve up this beloved institution for a few more dollars.”

Good question, accurate statements.

But maybe — just maybe — the expanded playoff lets us get back to basics, too.

Georgia fans can live and die by the Auburn game simply because it’s Auburn. Indiana-Ohio State is a banger, not make-or-break.

Regular season stakes are great (and they’re not going anywhere, particularly for non-bluebloods). But in a sports world toxically focused on legacies and championships, there’s a certain level of freedom in just … focusing on the smaller picture. Enjoying a game for what it is.

In fact, that’s kind of the point.

Right?

🔗 More college football coverage: No excuses for Bulldogs; Georgia Tech takeaways

DREAM-VALKYRIES, PART II

The Dream couldn’t get it done down the stretch and lost Game 1 of the WNBA Finals. They made less than 33% of their shots, couldn’t connect from behind the arc and failed to score at all in the game’s final minutes.

Adjustment time!

“I just think in the second half in particular, we didn’t move the ball well enough,” Dream head coach Karl Smesko said. “We did a little bit too much one-on-one instead of getting in action. Angel (Reese) had a great first half. We didn’t get her the ball enough. Those will be some things that we talk about for Game 2.”

Tipoff arrives at 8 p.m. on USA.

🔗 Bonus linkage: Enes Kanter Freedom says he’ll attend Game 3; Allisha Gray solid in return

HEY, THE HAWKS ARE BACK

Even more basketball is en route this week.

The Hawks get their regular season going with road games in Orlando (7 p.m. Wednesday) and Charlotte (7 p.m. Friday). The home opener arrives at 8:30 p.m. Saturday against Houston.

Consider this your early reminder that all of this season’s non-national games air on Atlanta News First and the Peachtree Sports Network.

🔗 Bonus linkage: Home Depot sponsors Hawks; new Fanatics shop opens nearby

ANOTHER FLIPPING UGLY LOSS

Ken Sugiura’s latest column more or less sums up my thoughts on Sunday’s debacle at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Michael Cunningham’s Weekend Predictions take — “Stefanski has more, doing less with Falcons offense” — is pretty good too.

Perhaps the most disheartening part, though, was the fact that the Falcons offense had to operate on a silent count at home.

Too many boisterous Bears fan.

• Quarterback Michael Penix: “The crowd noise thing, it’s always tough, whenever you’re playing at home and you hear early in the week, it’s like, ‘We might got to work silent cadence.’ Because you always expect our fans will overrule the opponents’ fans. But we were ready for it.”
• Center Ryan Neuzil: “It’s just the name of the game. Chicago’s a really good team and they just have a bunch of fans worldwide, so they travel really well. It’s always harder to be on silent count.”

Yeesh. It may not be much better when the San Francisco 49ers come to town on Sunday, either.

🔗 Bonus linkage: Falcons drop Rush, add Dalton; ’Reports are good’ on Kendal Daniels; remembering Jeff Van Note