Michigan vs Washington, who do you have?
Michigan is built to beat this Washington team, they are basically the Ohio State team from 2 years ago that Michigan beat. I think Washington’s only path to winning is having Penix go off while Michigan can beat Washington in several ways. Michigan has a better D and O line and with the pressure they were able to put on Milroe, if they can do that gain it’s going to be hard for Washington. Michigan’s ground game can run the clock and keep Penix off the field and I believe that should be part of their game plan.
If the game is 30’s and above Washington has a better chance to win, if it’s below the 30’s I think Michigan takes the title.
My solution to the CFB landscape.
Problems
Transfer portal opening up between season and bowl games
Too long off between season and bowl games
NIL and bowl-opt outs
Chance of rivalry games (Mich/OSU, Alabama/Auburn) played multiple times a year
Solution
End the CFB season the first Saturday in December. Following week is the 4 games playing into the quarterfinals which are played at the higher seed team. Following week is the quarterfinals with the semi’s the week after, all would be played at NY6 bowls and have the championship game set before the holidays with some time off. CFP championship game Jan 1 at the Rose Bowl. it is the absolute best venue for this, holds tradition, high seating capacity, desirable spot and has the rose parade to kick off the day. The 2pm PT time slot works great for the holiday and east cost times with nothing starting too late. The 10-14 day break gives plenty of time to build and hype the national championship, and who wouldn’t want to spend NYE in the Pasadena area.
Season would be over Jan 2 before the NFL playoffs start.
So the biggest changes is move up the games a few weeks and move the championship to the Rose Bowl permanently.
College baseball plays their World Series in Omaha every year and college football should play their championships in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl permanently. One of the biggest worries of Rose Bowl officials is moving the game to the quarterfinals to keep it in the Jan 1st 2pm time slot is a reduction in the quality of matches, this solves all of that. Keep it on Jan 1 and have the best damn matchup possible.
Solving the bowl opt-outs or transfers. If a player transfers before Jan 2nd, they have to take a year off, but if they play in the bowl game, they can transfer and play the following year. It’s not a perfect solution and can be worked around, but could prevent games like FSU/Georgia.
I do believe at this point with the expanded CFB playoffs that conference championships are not longer necessary but do realize the financial gain is too lucrative to pass it up. I do think that maybe going to an 8-team playoff with the conference championship games playing as a “de-facto” first round could be a possibility, but I believe that ship has already sailed. However, stopping the conference championship games could reduce the likelihood of these main rivalry games played 2-3x/year.
The big issue is the NIL without holding the players obligated to play anywhere for any length of time. It is essentially NFL free agency without any contracts. in the NFL players are at least under contract and need to be traded, in CFB they can just pack up and leave. This also doesn’t have a salary cap, so schools like Minnesota that might have been able to get a big recruit could lose them to another school with deeper pockets and a bigger market. CFB is all about “fairness” with their rules. this is a HUGE gap in the fairness.
This is the new CFB landscape, I love and hate it, but think it can move forward reasonable with some smart changes.
