Let's Sim All the Canceled College Football Games

When healthy enough to play, and sometimes just barely so, college football teams are playing college football this year. Which I should point out is fantastic. Seeing players get a chance to compete in something they love while being as safe as possible is an oft-forgotten small-scale success marker along the way — even for the cynics who doubted trying as a worthwhile endeavor.

As we hurtle toward triple digits on the postponements/cancellations scoreboard, it's becoming abundantly clear to all what was abundantly clear to about half a few months ago: This season will always be a work in progress more likely than not to end with an incomplete grade, no matter how worthy the eventual national champion proves to be.

The College Football Playoff selection committee, which honestly has had a pretty cushy and simple job this whole time, will have its work cut out in large pieces. Good luck delineating the difference between a 5-1 team and a 4-2 or a 3-1 and a 5-2. So how can we both make it a little easier for them and steer into the nightmarish and seemingly random skid of 2020?

Simple. Simulate all the games on the most recent college football game that cannot be played in the real world. That way we can all be working with a full slate. Normalcy if you will. Ohio State only plays five games this season? Thankfully that 8-0 they racked up in PlayStation world is there to present a more complete picture. Congratulations, Big Ten champs. Oh, Notre Dame went undefeated? Too bad they lost twice in the machine. Better luck next year as an independent.

Truly, I see absolutely no downside. Okay, maybe the big one and then the other 20,218. But did you consider that they could put all these simmed games on television to fulfill inventory requirements and help recoup networks and conferences' lost money? Does that not appeal to your capitalistic sensibilities? What about that you, the person reading this, is far more likely to root for a team that isn't in consideration and therefore any screwing would be at the expense of some other fanbase? Does that not appeal to your darker side?

This is all obviously being written with a wink and a nod, Yet it will be interesting to see how creative the sport will be when it gets more desperate. The NBA and NHL completed their seasons largely without a major scare. Major League Baseball was a late Tampa Bay rally away from a near-Armageddon before Game 7 of the World Series.

So dismiss nothing even slightly more realistic than this. It's been an odd, meandering trip to get to this point and the water's not getting any less choppy.