Fixing College Football Means Fixing One's Self

On balance, Saturday was not a great day for college football. That’s what one should say if forced to take a 30,000-foot view for a reactionary thinkpiece. Clemson throttled Notre Dame. Alabama rushed out to a 28-0 lead over Oklahoma, then toyed with the Sooners like an unmotivated cat would a ball on a string. Neither game was particularly competitive. More importantly, neither was all that interesting or fun.

For the third time in the last four seasons, it will be the Crimson Tide and Tigers playing for a national championship. The first two meetings were thrilling, and this one could be, too. But there’s no doubt that some fatigue is setting in. Dynasties can be good. Two dynasties can be trying.

It doesn’t feel as though the sport is in a great place. It doesn’t feel as though going to an eight-team playoff will fix the underlying problem of two teams that have distanced themselves from the pack. Every year, there are precious few teams capable of winning it all — and only two you’d feel confident betting on.

So what’s the answer? It may be an unsatisfying one. It may be to address the internal instead of external. It may be to adjust one’s expectations and goals. To reconsider what it is to watch.

Eventually, college football, as a living and breathing ecosystem, will work itself out, as college basketball did post-UCLA dominance. Until then, it could be useful to have an honest recognition about how to enjoy the seasons.

I’d posit that those tuning in every Saturday only thinking about the national championship are consuming the product in the wrong way. That’s a recipe for dead-end roads and wasted time. Say what you want about millennials, but our Participation Trophy mindset could bring a lot of joy to the hand-wringing masses.

There are 129 FBS teams. They don’t all share a common goal. Northern Illinois’ aspirations aren’t congruent with Georgia’s. A 6-6 year means something different for Purdue than it does Oregon. There are myriad levels of success and definition. There is beauty in finding meaning and celebrating the stepping stones.

It’s my belief that college football was always meant to be approached like European soccer fans approach their sport. Winning it all is important, yes, but so too are the intermediate successes. Stateside, the playoff era has had an adverse impact on the public, which is increasingly interested in only the top four teams.

Look, we feel unsatisfied because Saturday was unsatisfying. And unless you’re a Clemson or Alabama fan, this annual ritual is getting a bit old. But a wise person once said to focus on the things that are under one’s control and let the other chips fall where they may. College football fans can change themselves more easily than they can change the realities of an inequitable system.

That’s kind of all I have for you right now. Sorry.