ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Never let anyone tell you otherwise: Buffoonery is hard work.
It’s different from incompetence or ineffectualness, which are merely shortcomings. Buffoonery, instead, involves a purposefulness. A dedication to knowingly choosing the wrong path. It is, in its own way, stunning in its hubris.
If you do not believe, just consider those in charge of the College Football Playoff system.
They had a plan, they had hundreds of millions of dollars at stake that could be used to fund college athletics programs, they had years of evidence to draw upon, they had the backing of much of the nation. And then, when it came time to expand college football’s playoffs from four teams to 12, they got together Friday for this monumental announcement:
Nah, we’re going to wait.
Unbelievable.
Eight months after agreeing to the expansion, the commissioners and athletic directors in charge of the playoffs decided they could not come to terms on how to make it happen before their current 12-year contract runs out after the 2025 season.
It is inexplicable, and I do not use that word lightly. There was literally no explanation other than they could not come to unanimous agreement, as required.
They talked about the number of moving parts and hinted that there are bigger decisions that have to be made. They suggested it was only a temporary setback, as if college football hasn’t been building to this moment for the past 100 years.
And so college football fans can prepare for four more years of Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma in the playoffs. At least, that’s the statistical probability. In the first eight years the four-team CFP has been in place, those schools have accounted for about two-thirds of the playoff berths. Ninety percent of college football’s eligible teams have never had a whiff of these playoffs.
That makes Friday’s decision feel awfully suspicious. College football has always been a top-heavy sport, and now it feels as if the biggest conferences and universities want to continue sitting in the VIP room for as long as possible.
This isn’t about adding a burden on student-athletes. The regular-season schedule is longer than ever, and there are plenty of meaningless blowouts that can be sacrificed, if that’s the concern.
It’s not about the integrity of the regular season, or the worry that two-loss teams could get into the playoffs either. The beauty of competition is the arc of a season, and the belief that anything is possible.
That’s what an expanded playoff would bring.
Florida State’s relatively strong rebound in 2021, and the change in coaching staffs at Florida and Miami have added a touch of offseason excitement around the state. Nobody is suggesting these teams are ready to compete for a four-team playoff in 2022, but a 12-team field might have made October and November just a little more enticing for a lot of fans.
And that possibility would extend around the nation, and outside of the usual Power 5 teams that have had a stranglehold on confetti showers for decades.
Whether you love bowl games or not, their usefulness as season-ending exhibitions have passed. Top players are now routinely opting out of games, and fans are bound to follow their cues. To use an antiquated system as an excuse to hang on any longer is silly.
So why did a handful of power brokers opt for the status quo?
Basically, because they could.
College football has as rabid a following as any sport in America, and that won’t change no matter how many teams have a shot in the postseason. In some ways, it makes this decision even more infuriating.
Fans deserve better. Players deserve better. Boosters, television networks, athletes in minor sports who would benefit from the cash infusion at their universities, all deserve better.
The fact that a handful of executives could shut the plan down simply because they couldn’t come to an agreement is infuriating. It’s buffoonery.
