This is the day that many who track college football thought would never come. The bowls were too powerful, we said. The conference commissioners didn’t want to pluck their golden goose, we said. The NCAA was too mousy to intercede, we said. And we were, ultimately and blessedly, wrong.
This is the day that big-time college football commences its inaugural tournament — one game in Pasadena and one here, with the winners meeting Jan. 12 in Arlington, Texas, to determine a champion on the field of play. It’s not exactly a novel concept. Indeed, it’s novel only to this sport on this level. But better late than never.
As with anything new, there’ll be a shakedown period. No college team has ever had to play a January game for the right to grace another January game. “I’m glad there’s still the feel of the Sugar Bowl,” Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said, “but there’s a much different feel from, ‘This is it.’ Because it’s not ‘it.’ Everybody knows there’s something left.”
Said Alabama coach Nick Saban: “We haven’t treated it like a normal bowl week, but this is the only game that matters … Once we get an outcome of this game, we’ll focus on what comes next — whatever that might be.”
In the BCS era, teams would have five weeks to prepare for one game. These four have had 26 (or 27, in Oregon’s case) days to ready for this, and two will play again in a different city 11 days hence. Nobody involved can look beyond the semifinal, but neither can winning the semi been seen as the ultimate prize.
Of the reconfigured dynamics, Meyer said: “I remember thinking, ‘How would this work?’ Now that we’re here, there’s no conversation whatsoever about the next one … It’s all hands on deck and find a way to get this one done. That will be interesting an conversation for next week for the two teams that make it, but there’s been zero (so far). I think the other two teams are playing in the Rose Bowl, and I think it’s Oregon and Florida State. Other than that, that’s all we know.”
Put a bevy of football writers in one city for an extended period and cogitation ensues. At Tuesday’s media day, Steve Greenberg of the Chicago Sun-Times suggested to Meyer that, should Ohio State win here, the Buckeyes would be better served playing Florida State because the Seminoles are closer in style to Alabama. Whereas Alabama would profit from playing Oregon, which is more akin to Ohio State. Even Meyer, usually the smartest guy in any room, conceded Greenberg’s point.
Beyond X’s and O’s, there’s also the issue of logistics. As Meyer noted, thisSugar Bowl has been staged in the manner of one-shot BCS title games: The teams arrived five days early and did the usual round of practices, daily media sessions and bowl events. The CFP final will be different: The teams won’t arrive in Dallas until Jan. 9, and there will be only two days of press stuff. (Though there will be another at-the-stadium media day, which means two collegiate teams must endure that numbing process twice. Even Super Bowl participants only have to sit through one.)
“It’s a much different season,” Meyer said. “It used to be 11 games and a bowl game. Now you’re talking about 14, 15 games, and that is getting very NFL-ish. We’re very leery of it. And there’s a part of me that’s concerned about the wear and tear on the student-athlete.”
Then this: “But I watch our players, and they’re having the time of their life. I don’t feel like there’s fatigue. I don’t feel like there’s anyone who doesn’t want to be part of this.”
And that’s the greater point: Having fussed for decades that big-time college football was the only sport that didn’t crown a True Champ, we cannot in good conscience say that squeezing in an extra game isn’t worth the effort. Because it absolutely is.
Even the famously focused Meyer took a step back Monday to admire the panoramic view. “At practice, I was watching a very good team get ready to play in the Sugar Bowl,” he said, and then he thought: “This is the playoff — that’s history.”
It’s history, and finally it’s reality. Let us rejoice and be glad.
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