They’ve been arguing about the new College Football Playoff format for almost a 12 months, bickering again and forth a couple of bunch of something that basically means nothing.
It’s time for the Big Ten and SEC to straighten out the college soccer postseason mess by simplifying it: Eat what you kill.
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No more computerized qualifiers.
No more items to the 4 Power conferences, no more “excuse me” entry for the Group of Six. It’s 16 groups with a variety committee of former coaches and media members, and each single invitation relies on benefit.
Not on convention affiliation or charity.
No more athletic administrators on the choice committee with apparent biases and inherent funding in a single program or one other. No more random Jane and Joes off the avenue to give the committee and everyman really feel.
I would like individuals who know ball ― and media members retaining coaches from their inherent funding ― and perceive the nuances of the sport, and aren’t tied to some funky components of not having the ability to vote one group over one other as a result of the two groups have been by no means in the identical quartile to vote on. Or no matter the hell the present committee tried to promote about Notre Dame and Miami.
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Should Notre Dame be ticked off? You higher imagine it ought to.
You can’t be informed one factor by the committee for 4 weeks — that head-to-head didn’t matter — then be told the exact opposite on the final poll.
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That doesn’t imply the Irish ought to’ve pulled a temper tantrum and walked away from the bowl season, nevertheless it actually means we’ve got to take a protracted take a look at how this factor works and how merely it may be fastened. No matter how Notre Dame and the Group of Six push for entry.
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The present memorandum of understanding for the new CFP contract starting with the 2026 season provides Notre Dame computerized entry whether it is ranked in the Top 12. And, in fact, and computerized entry for the highest-ranked Group of Six convention champion.
It’s an MOU, it isn’t legally set in stone.
Ladies and gents, I’m right here to let you know the days of pandering to Notre Dame are over. Same with the Group of Six.
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There’s a little bit of a hiccup with the Group of Six, as a result of they could begin speaking about authorized motion and antitrust legal guidelines. But there’s a simple means round it: pay them off.
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Give them more money from the new 16-team CFP format (which is able to earn considerably more cash than the $1.4 billion yearly it does now), and give them the identical assure as everybody else. If you end ranked in the high 16, you’re in the CFP.
If you don’t, higher luck subsequent 12 months.
Remember this, everybody: the Big Ten and SEC have the final trump card. If they don’t like the means this factor is about up, they will stroll away and have their own playoff — and there’s nothing any enterprising lawyer can do about it.
Then what does the Group of Six have? Bupkis.
And Notre Dame? Same deal: If you end in the Top 16, you’re in the playoff. No more bending over for the college with its personal tv contract.
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For years, the Big Ten and SEC didn’t need to rock the Notre Dame boat — simply in case the Irish determined to be a part of a convention. The two super-conferences of the sport saved winking at Notre Dame, and permitting this nonsensical favorable entry into the BCS/CFP.
Not anymore. The concept Notre Dame is a tv draw actually holds benefit, however not almost as a lot because it as soon as did. Decades in the past, Notre Dame dominated the tv panorama and constructed a major following due to it.
Now each sport — each single FBS sport — is televised a method or one other. It’s a fall smorgasbord of soccer each Saturday, and each different day besides Sunday.
Notre Dame isn’t the draw it as soon as was. The Top 10 groups in viewership this season, in accordance to Nielsen, have been all SEC and Big Ten groups.
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Last 12 months, when Notre Dame superior to the CFP championship — and pocketed $20 million due to the candy deal given to it by the CFP — its sport towards Ohio State drew 22.1 million viewers. It was one in every of the lowest viewership numbers in the historical past of BCS/CFP championship video games.
How low, you ask? The fifth-least watched sport of the BCS/CFP period.
That’s not narrative or Notre Dame hate, these are details. There’s no purpose to kowtow to Notre Dame aside from the Big Ten and SEC hoping the Irish will come to its convention senses and select them.
They received’t. It can be fiscally reckless for Notre Dame to accomplish that — to say nothing of its outright steadfast dedication to stay an unbiased.
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And that’s positive. Just prefer it’s positive for the Group of Six to determine they’ll take their probabilities and threaten authorized motion, and not suppose the Big Ten and SEC will stroll away from the total course of.
You’re not stopping Notre Dame and the Group of Six from enjoying in the CFP, they’ll have the identical entry as everybody else. You need to increase the CFP past 16? Go forward, simply don’t change the basis of the new deal.
Eat what you kill.
Matt Hayes is the senior nationwide college soccer author for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
This article initially appeared on USA TODAY: CFP problem is automatic qualifiers, no matter what Notre Dame thinks