Why Notre Dame or Ohio State will be the most worthy college football national champions in history
Be ready for critics to present the following information regardless of the outcome of Monday night’s College Football Playoff final game:
A common response following a Notre Dame victory will be, “But they lost to Northern Illinois!” pointing out that no national champion had ever experienced such a humiliating defeat.
Expect to hear a lot of complaints about how it detracts from the regular season since a two-loss team might win the national title after finishing fourth in the Big Ten if Ohio State wins coach Ryan Day’s first national championship.
Let’s now provide a clear-cut and basic refutation to any attempts to minimize the 12-team playoff’s inaugural champion: Put an end to this bullshit.
Either Notre Dame or Ohio State will not only be deserving winners, but they should also be given extra credit for enduring four physically demanding, intense playoff games, something no team in the history of the sport has ever had to do.
Worthy? You’d best trust it.
Let us hope that this discussion will eventually go away once the playoff model has become so embedded in society that it no longer feels novel.
OPINION: We are better off because Ohio State and Notre Dame were saved by the College Football Playoff expansion.
OPINION: Ohio State is only one victory away from permanently changing its story.
Every other team sport has successfully chosen a champion through a multi-round playoff process without debating hypothetical scenarios or whether the victor truly merited the opportunity to compete. The time has come for college football supporters to embrace the sport and put its once erroneous culture in the past.
College football was unique for many years because it placed more weight on the appearance of perfection than on a team’s actual performance as determined by a series of tournament exams.
Whether it was the poll era, the BCS, or the four-team CFP, college football has undoubtedly produced many winners who most likely would have prevailed in whatever format. Since those teams were so much better than everyone else, we can probably come to the conclusion that no one was defeating 1995 Nebraska, 2001 Miami, or 2019 LSU.
However, there were also many years when the sport’s tendency to be conducted like a beauty pageant may have misidentified the greatest and most worthy team, especially during the poll period and the BCS.
In 1984, BYU jumped into the rankings with a spectacular victory over Pittsburgh, went on to defeat a number of mediocre to bad Western Athletic Conference teams, nearly automatically rose to the top of the rankings when everyone else lost, and won the national championship by defeating Michigan 6-6 in the Holiday Bowl.
The sport used to be like that.
However, there were dubious decisions even during the BCS era.
Given that Southern Cal and Oklahoma were also undefeated, who’s to claim Auburn wasn’t the greatest team in 2004 when it dominated the SEC and was eliminated from the title game? If Oklahoma State had been given a chance rather than the BCS settling for an all-SEC rematch, how can we be certain that it wouldn’t have defeated LSU or Alabama in 2011?
What was even more annoying was that the people in charge of the sport took a look at those disputes year after year and, rather than acknowledging that there was a better way to manage the postseason, actually claimed that a media feud over whose team was the greatest was boosting interest in college football.
Imagine: If the BCS still existed, Oregon vs. Georgia would have been the national championship game this year, and the victor would have been recognized as the official champion of the season.
However, we know those weren’t the two best teams since we have actually witnessed games played on the field. Georgia was physically thrashed in addition to losing to Notre Dame. Even though Oregon defeated Ohio State at home early in the season, when the Buckeyes faced the Ducks on a neutral field with everything on the line, the Ducks showed they were no match for them.
I understand if you’re one of those traditional fans who think that Oregon’s previous victory over Ohio State and subsequent Big Ten title should have been the last say since that’s how things have been for so long.
However, this is a flawed way of thinking that is based on the notion that a championship is a reward rather than the end result of a process that evaluates every aspect of a team.
Consider the struggles Ohio State faced in the CFP alone, where they faced the No. 3 defense in the country (Texas), the No. 6 defense (Tennessee), and an offense that scored 35 points per game on average (Oregon).
Notre Dame has faced the SEC champion Georgia, the No. 7 defense (Penn State), and the No. 2 scoring offense (Indiana).
Are these teams flawed in any way? Naturally.
Northern Illinois ended 4-4 in the Mid-American Conference, the worst loss ever suffered by a national title team. In addition to being a magnificent and unforgivable performance, it served as the impetus for Notre Dame to resolve its problems and transform into a band that performed with passion, concentration, and purpose.
It’s also true that Ohio State would not have been mentioned at all in the BCS or the four-team CFP after losing to Michigan for the fourth consecutive year. It would have been a depressing and hopeless conclusion for a squad that never lived up to its potential, and they would have just been put in a bowl game that no one cared about.
However, Ohio State’s performance in this tournament—two decisive victories over strong opponents and a close victory over Texas—doesn’t exactly look like a fantastic promotion for the previous system.
“We are really appreciative. For a variety of reasons, I believe that everyone in the program is in this predicament,” Day stated. “However, I do believe that the new structure has helped our squad develop throughout the course of the season, and even while losses are painful, they actually give us as coaches and players the opportunity to examine the problems and find solutions. After that, it’s about the business of fixing them over time. That, in my opinion, is the most important thing I’ve discovered about this format, which has, in my opinion, been excellent for our athletes. It’s fantastic for college football, in my opinion.
And there’s no need to apologize.
The Miami Heat, who lost their opening game of the play-in round and were given another chance to win the eighth spot, did not have to apologize for reaching the NBA Finals two years ago.
Similarly, even though UConn finished third in the AAC and began the NCAA tournament as an afterthought No. 7 seed, they didn’t have to apologize for winning the men’s basketball title in 2014.
In a similar vein, the 2011 New York Giants didn’t have to make amends for finishing 9-7 in the regular season, winning a Super Bowl, and defeating one of the best New England Patriots teams ever.
Sports operate like this. Become accustomed to it. Go somewhere else to vent your frustrations.
And that the final two teams standing wouldn’t have been chosen by a committee or pollsters, which devalues the college football regular season? Simply put, there is no proof of it.
Any club that qualifies for the playoffs, after all, either won a conference or was ranked in the top ten. In the 12-team playoff, that is now the norm, and getting there is difficult.
Despite being given the benefit of the doubt, Alabama was unable to succeed. Despite having arguably the finest overall roster in the SEC, Ole Miss was unable to succeed. Miami went 10-2 in a power conference and had the top offense in college football, but they were unable to pull it off. That trio wouldn’t have been so upset about just missing the cut if the regular season had been pointless.
Being among the top teams in the nation during the regular season, playing your best football in December, and being healthy enough to win four postseason games against teams with different styles and strengths are all necessary to win a national title in college football these days.
Free rides are not available. You must be whole.
