Okay College Football, you told us, 24 teams might work

We moaned & groaned this past week about a 24-team playoff coming to college football... and then Saturday we ate shit as the sport was turned on its side hour by hour watching empires fall. Now please listen before you start up again, but this year is a perfect example of why the 24-team playoff could freaking rock!

So as some try to say there are no elite teams this year, blah blah blah crap, it could just be that there are more teams catching up right before our eyes. In the past we only needed 2, 4, or 8 as that was all that seemed deserved, but now in this new age of sports, the depth of players' skill has allowed teams, though maybe just at times a one-off, the ability to compete with anyone any Saturday. This is why the 24-team playoff will be better in the long term for college football. Though I will say we need to add "bowl game" titles to these first-round games: still home for the high seed, but the 16 vs 17 matchup is the Pop-Tarts Bowl, or the 8 vs 9 is the Alamo Bowl. This way teams can get trophies to remember and celebrate their playoff appearances/success. But that's another discussion. Today it's this year proving the point for 24.

The argument has always been 24's distance in talent from #1. Well, first off, they wouldn't play each other, and secondly, this year that just may not be as true as we have seen in the past, we just had an unranked Auburn team come into Athens and take down #1 UGA. The gaps are closing, and with 24 teams in now, this could slow the transfer portal rates (at least among Power 4 teams) with more chances to make a playoff run in the realm of possibility.

Look, all I'm saying is this season is shaping up for another HUGE cluster of teams that have insane talent, a good record, and a damn good argument to be one of the 12. We still have a lot of games to be played, but right now there is a world in which we have 16–18 teams deep with their hands up to voice their opinions on why they deserve a seat at the table.

We all, myself included, resisted this new look, but when it comes down to it, this could be better for the sport, as P4 teams aren't going to be so afraid of 1–2 losses anymore, which means non-conference big matchups could return. Let's just start to think like college basketball: a big loss in November (September) is better to learn from for March (December/January) than seen as a season killer.