The Athletic's Austin Meek filed a story this morning ($) suggesting that if the CFP expands to 24, The Game should be moved to October.
I realize this proposal will be wildly unpopular with fans. You know what else is wildly unpopular with fans? The 24-team CFP. Allow me to explain why my unpopular idea is a good one. I, too, love the Michigan-Ohio State game exactly as it is, but I worry the greatness of The Game will be wasted if it’s played after most of the 24-team Playoff field is set.
The goal should be to play The Game when the stakes are highest. For most of the rivalry’s history, that meant playing it on the final Saturday of the regular season. Part of the rivalry’s greatness is watching tension build throughout the season, leading up to the crescendo in late November.
If the CFP expands, my prediction is that the crescendo of the regular season will hit earlier. Probably sometime in October, when we’ve seen enough to know who’s good, yet not enough to have the whole CFP bracket figured out. The final Saturday of the regular season will feel more like Week 18 in the NFL — extremely relevant for a few teams, anticlimactic for everyone else.
In October, everybody will have something to play for. Teams will be warmed up but not as beaten up as they’ll be in late November. We’ll know enough to identify the most important games, but nobody will be locked into a particular CFP track. Also, fans won’t yet have Bracket Fatigue from analyzing the same handful of scenarios again and again.
I get there are many, many old school traditionalists here--present company included--but given all the changes that have impacted CFB in the past few years and forced down our throats--NIL, the portal, CFP expansion--is keeping The Game does the last regular season finale a mandatory in your mind or would it be the latest change we'd have to accept given we have no control over what's happening?
The days of OSU and TTUN fans banding together to object to The Game being sponsored and altering that outcome seem to be long passed.
Thoughts?
