Cowherd & Middlekauff: College Football Playoff Reactions

The College Football Playoff field is set, and as usual, half the country is furious.

That’s the sport. College football is uniquely tribal. In the NFL, you might be an Eagles fan who also lives and dies with the Phillies, the Sixers, Villanova hoops. You’ve got options. In a lot of college towns, though, the team is the entertainment. It’s identity. So when the committee makes a call, it’s not just a ranking to people – it’s personal.

From our vantage point, though? We actually think the committee mostly got it right this year – with one big, familiar problem baked in.

The Top of the Bracket: No Real Issue Here

Let’s start with the easy part: the top of the field.

Putting Indiana at 1, Ohio State at 2, Georgia at 3, and Texas Tech at 4 doesn’t bother us. Those are big brands, loaded with NFL bodies, tested over the course of a season. You can argue around the edges, but in a 12-team format, it’s mostly seeding drama, not existential crisis.

We also don’t have any issue with Alabama being in. You can complain about the Tide, but the market is telling you what they are: they’re favored over Oklahoma. That alone tells you they’re one of the 12 best teams.

Georgia? They lost at home to Bama. That win in Athens still matters.

Notre Dame, Miami, and the Cost of Missed Opportunities

With Notre Dame its simple. You had two chances to make this easy – Miami or Texas A&M. Win one of those games and you’re probably in. You didn’t. End of story.

USC – a bad road team this year – cannot be your signature win. USC fans themselves are disappointed in their season. That’s not a playoff-maker. It’s like beating Michigan this season with a true freshman quarterback – nice logo win, not a meaningful resume piece.

And when you dig into the schedule, it’s worse. Notre Dame played one great defensive team all year: Miami. In that game? Miami dominated the line of scrimmage. Notre Dame’s run game completely dried up. Jeremiah Love rushed for 33 yards.

Seven of the teams Notre Dame played had defenses ranked outside the top 100. Of course the Irish “looked” like a powerhouse. Play enough bad defenses, everybody looks explosive.

This is why we don’t have much sympathy for them. They’ve chosen to live in this gray area — half-independent, half-aligned with the ACC when it’s convenient. They keep all their playoff money, they mix and match their own schedule, they lean on the NBC deal. At some point, you’ve got to join a power conference and live in the same weekly grind as everyone else.

If you want the benefits of being “Notre Dame the brand,” you’re also going to wear it when the schedule backfires.

The “Little Guy” Problem That Won’t Go Away

We’ve never been a believer in the “little guy” as a serious national title contender. We all know who recruits the best players: Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, LSU, Notre Dame, USC, Miami. Go look at National Signing Day. It’s the same 8–10 brands at the top every year.

Do I think Tulane can beat Ole Miss in a one-off bowl? Sure. Upsets happen. But there’s a big difference between capable of pulling an upset and built to consistently beat three or four elite rosters in a row.

And here’s the issue—years ago, when this playoff structure was drawn up, it felt like they carved out an automatic path for a non–Power Five team mostly to avoid lawsuits and bad optics. “See, we included everybody. Nobody’s excluded.”

But the truth is, the great “little guys” like Boise State under Chris Petersen or Utah before they joined a power conference were absolute outliers. Those teams had 10+ NFL guys, beat Oregon and Georgia, and looked like top-5 programs.

That’s not James Madison. That’s not this version of Tulane. Those programs getting a guaranteed seat at the table this year pushed real contenders into a fight for fewer spots than there should’ve been.

The Notre Dame vs. Miami debate only became a debate because Tulane and JMU were chewing up space.

Time for Two Separate Playoffs?

Where this is heading feels obvious. The Power Four (Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, ACC) should probably have their own playoff. The Group of Five should have theirs. FCS/Division I-AA already has their own. We don’t need to cram all of this under one bracket for optics.

Right now we’re pretending that a two-touchdown underdog from a smaller league belongs in the same postseason conversation as rosters littered with first-round picks. The betting lines tell you everything: JMU is a huge underdog, Tulane is a huge underdog. We already know what the sport thinks of them.

We did this in other parts of life. COVID hit and for two years we just made stuff up as we went. Same with .com, same with AI. In these transition eras, things change fast and the rules lag behind reality. College football is deep in one of those transitions.

We went from “paying players is the death penalty” to open bidding wars for high school kids. The transfer portal is wilder than NFL free agency. Coaches make $10–12 million a year. And now we’ve got a 12-team playoff that’s probably headed to 16.

The sport we grew up with doesn’t exist anymore. The system has to catch up.

Why Miami Had to Be In

One decision I did love: getting Miami into the field.

They have better offensive and defensive lines than Notre Dame. They won the head-to-head. They play real, physical football against real, physical teams. And if we’re trying to put the best 12 teams in, that matters.

The Irish had feasted on bad defenses all year. Miami didn’t. The committee ultimately put Miami over Notre Dame, honoring head-to-head results. It just took longer than people were comfortable with.

And on a matchup level, I like Miami against Texas A&M, even as A&M is favored. I think Alabama–Oklahoma is a fantastic game, and I’d probably lean Bama close. But Miami getting in was important for credibility. They pass the eye test and the line-of-scrimmage test.

The Bowl Games Are Dying in Front of Us

The other big story to us is what’s happening to bowl games.

Notre Dame opting out of their bowl. Baylor reportedly doing the same. That’s not nothing. When big brands start saying, “Yeah, we’re good, we’ll stay home,” it’s a flashing red light.

Bowl games used to matter because:

• They were a reward for players.
• They were a showcase for NFL scouts.
• They were one of the few postseason TV events available.

Now?

• Top players skip them.
• Coaches use that time to work the portal.
• Fans care more about the playoff and recruiting.

Live your life through the windshield, not the rearview mirror. The sport is telling you what it is. The nostalgia era of the bowls is over. We’re almost at the point where conference championship games might be next on the chopping block.

And that’s why you couldn’t just boot Alabama out for losing in a conference title game. Until those games are officially devalued or replaced by “play-in” style matchups, there’s too much money and too much perceived importance wrapped in them.

We both see where this is headed: a 16-team playoff, and the current conference championship weekend morphing into play-in games:

• SEC: Texas vs. Vanderbilt type matchups.
• Big Ten: USC vs. somebody as a win-and-you’re-in scenario.

More meaningful games, fewer exhibitions.

Indiana’s Breakthrough and the Rise of Mendoza & Cignetti

One of the most shocking on-field results this season was Indiana beating Ohio State.

I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that was one of the craziest outcomes we’ve seen in big-time college football. Not because Indiana is bad – they’re really good – but because of what it represents.

Ohio State tried. Hard. They were defending champs. They treated that game like a national title.

And still, Indiana’s defensive line bullied the Buckeyes’ offensive line. That wasn’t scheme. That was power. They bull-rushed them, pushed them back, controlled the game physically.

And then there’s Fernando Mendoza.

I’ve watched him against Ohio State and Penn State, both on the road. Big arm. Accurate deep ball. Poise. Threading throws into tiny windows against talented secondaries – that’s what NFL evaluators are circling.

We don’t care what his stat line was. GMs don’t care about five touchdowns versus Rutgers. They care about how you function against the best defense in the country on the biggest stage. Mendoza passed that test. To us, he looks like a locked-in top-two pick, maybe the favorite to go No. 1 depending on how Dante Moore’s season and postseason play out.

Add in Cignetti – who turned Indiana overnight into one of the most physical teams in America – and you’ve got the blueprint for a new Big Ten power.

They look like Harbaugh’s Michigan teams used to look. Heavy fronts, nasty in the trenches, chip on their shoulder, trash talk, and they back it up. In the NIL era, with the portal, an older coach with a strong identity can build that faster than ever.