The first games of the inaugural 12-team CFP this weekend “landed with all the fanfare of a pigskin with a puncture,” as all four first-round games “degenerated into a one-sided blowout,” according to Laine Higgins of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The “slew of lopsided results raises questions about the format, seeding and selection criteria of the expanded playoff” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 12/22). The AP’s Eddie Pells noted the average final score of the four games was 36-17. This “bold, new experiment was supposed to bring more programs from more parts of the country into the loop of a largely regional sport” that had been “dominated by about a half-dozen teams for the last decade.” Meanwhile, one part that felt like a success “was that the stands were full in all four stadiums” (AP, 12/22). In D.C., Patrick Stevens wrote the set of results “should not be construed as a reason to condemn the playoff expansion.” In another year, with another set of teams, first-round contests “could deliver riveting games.” But there is “no reason to pretend these matchups turned out to be all that electric” (WASHINGTON POST, 12/22).
GIVE THINGS SOME TIME TO SETTLE IN: In Las Vegas, Adam Hill wrote even after a “few first-round duds,” the expanded CFP “is a great thing and will only get better.” There will be “plenty of great playoff games going forward and in the future.” Do not “overreact to the first round of the first year” (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 12/21). In Birmingham, Kevin Scarbinsky writes one-sided games “have become a feature, not a bug,” of college football’s playoff system, and that is a “larger problem that didn’t start Friday and Saturday.” There have been 34 postseason games since the four-team CFP started in 2014, and 22 of those games “have been decided by at least 14 points.” Seven of the 10 CFP national championship games “have been decided by 15 or more points” (BIRMINGHAM NEWS, 12/23). USA TODAY’s Dan Wolken wrote college football on Friday “became a real, big-boy sport with an actual postseason.” When “it’s real, you get what you get — and sometimes that’s a lopsided competition.” Wolken: “Calm down everyone” (USA TODAY, 12/21). In Dallas, Kevin Sherrington reported the first-round results “weren’t all that much different from the semis in the four-team playoffs.” This is “how it goes in playoff football.” A close game “is an anomaly” (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 12/22).
DID EVERYONE BELONG? USA TODAY’s Matt Hayes wrote Indiana’s inclusion in the CFP “was a monumental mistake” and there has “never been a bigger miss … by the selection committee in the 11 years of the playoff.” Notre Dame beat Indiana 27-17 — though IU scored 14 points in the final 90 seconds — and while there have been other playoff blowouts, “rarely were there times when those teams didn’t deserve to play in the games, or didn’t play a schedule worthy of inclusion” (USA TODAY, 12/21). However, THE ATHLETIC’s Joe Rexrode wrote IU “absolutely should have been here, based on the information that was available.” The CFP selection committee “got this one right,” though they will “get other ones right that will look wrong in retrospect” (THE ATHLETIC, 12/21). Meanwhile, despite SMU losing 38-10 to Penn State, THE ATHLETIC’s Justin Williams wrote a terrible performance doesn’t negate the body of work that got them to this point.” Williams: “Though there might be some flaws in this inaugural 12-team Playoff format, SMU’s bid is not one of them” (THE ATHLETIC, 12/21).
NEED TO PROTECT THE QUALITY: In San Jose, Jon Wilner wrote the “in-stadium atmosphere was fantastic” around the four games, but it was “bad television.” That in turn is “bad for college football.” There were plenty of blowouts in the semifinals during the playoff’s four-team era, but “limiting the number of blowouts is vastly more important now than it was under the four-team format.” Wilner: “Why? Because the semifinals were typically played on New Year’s Day, which belongs to college football.” The opening-round games on the weekend before Christmas have “direct competition … from the NFL.” It is “tough enough for the sport to compete head-to-head with the king.” So lopsided games on a “regular basis will only exacerbate the situation” (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 12/22). Meanwhile, in Chicago, Paul Sullivan emphasized there “really aren’t 12 teams good enough to compete for a national title.” Which led to “four boring games in which the announcers spent much of the fourth quarter rationalizing the losing teams’ presence in the CFP and overhyping the teams that handily beat them.” The games had the “feel of another bowl game once the novelty of playing in a non-bowl stadium wore off” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 12/22).
ON-CAMPUS GAMES A WINNER: CBSSPORTS.com’s Will Backus wrote the home playoff games are an “incredible addition” to the CFP. The atmospheres in South Bend, Happy Valley, Austin and Columbus were “electric and it’s an experience unlike anything college football has ever seen” (CBBSPORTS.com, 12/22). THE ATHLETIC’s Scott Dochterman notes a “whirlwind 36-hour journey” to the two night games at Notre Dame and Ohio State “revealed some of the best pomp and circumstance that college football has to offer” (THE ATHLETIC, 12/23). In D.C., Chuck Culpepper wrote that the fresh wrinkle of on-campus playoff games “did seem a hit,” especially in Columbus, where Tennessee fans “gobbled up enough tickets that they changed the tenor and color of the city and the stadium” (WASHINGTON POST, 12/22).
A SPECIAL FRIDAY NIGHT IN INDIANA: YAHOO SPORTS’ Ross Dellenger wrote IU-Notre Dame on Friday delivered “spectacular history to millions across the country: an on-campus playoff game.” This is where “college football’s postseason belongs.” This is where “college football lives, where it thrives.” We have “never seen this before — a true college football postseason clash on a college campus.” Dellenger: “How many years were wasted? How many seasons now gone?” We “could have had this so much sooner.” The NFL, “their grand stadiums, their big cities, their subways, has nothing on this.” But the atmosphere, the wintry weather, the pageantry of it all — “that’s where it’s at” (YAHOO SPORTS, 12/21). THE ATHLETIC’s Stewart Mandel reported the first on-campus Playoff game kicked off at Norte Dame Stadium and you “didn’t have to be in the 25-degree South Bend weather to get the chills.” Anyone watching on TV “could appreciate the magnitude of this moment for a sport that has only ever played its postseason at bowl games and neutral sites” (THE ATHLETIC, 12/22).
Start your morning with Buzzcast with Austin Karp: How did the First Round of the CFP perform? The PGA of America taps a new leader, NASCAR is non-committal about the future of Chicago street racing and JuJu Watkins vs. Paige Bueckers lives up to the hype.
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