Greedy Power Grab Threatens to Destroy College Football, Even as It Reaches a Peak

Alabama's dramatic 41-34 victory over #5 Georgia drew a television audience of 12 million people, the highest in 7 years. Right now, about 34 teams have a realistic chance of making the 12-team playoff and interest around the country has skyrocketed. Oregon drew 1.5 million for a one-sided late-night game against UCLA.

All that is tremendous, but Late Kick Host Josh Pate noted that as of noon Wednesday the Miami equipment truck had traveled 1200 miles, and it wasn't even halfway to Berkeley and the next CONFERENCE game against Cal on Saturday.

So few fans will make that trip, it might as well be staged in a television studio in Nashville or Dallas. Perhaps that's part of the future.

What IS part of the future is a plot by SEC and Big Ten commissioners Greg Sankey and Tony Pettiti to rig the college football playoff as the sports' Big Two.

The original format for the 12-team bracket had equity. It increased interest all over the country by including 5 conference champions, 7 at-large teams. That agreement is only in place for the first two years. Now Sankey and Pettiti want to flex their muscle as the big dogs of the sport. They've proposed a 4+4 plan that gives their conferences 8 slots in the bracket, which might expand to 16 or more teams.

Locking in 8 spots for the Power Two is unreasonable. That ought to be settled on the field.

The game needs wisdom and direction to unravel the unchecked mess and excess created by NIL and the Portal. It would benefit from national standards for officiating and consistency in the replay booth. And the crazy-quilt patchwork of leagues in three time zones with regional rivalries discarded and traditions lost makes little sense. It's made travel more costly and introduces new burdens for players, coaches and support staff.

No one is talking about the safety of all that extra travel itself, or the strain it creates for players who actually want to get a degree. November and December games are around the corner, with the extreme weather that closes airports. What happens if another Marshall tragedy mars the sport? How long will fans remain interested with their school playing teams they don't know in games that run past midnight?

Desperately college football needs a voice, leadership that looks out for the game. The playoff power grab suggests that leadership doesn't exist.