Booming Columbus, OH is thick with former Ohio State Buckeye football players who are part of the boom. Their close ties with the school's most prominent alums, and that were forged during their playing days, have set all too many up for life in an employment sense. The previous anecdote is probably the best way to begin a piece meant to criticize the direction of college football. It will be returned to.
For now, let's start with the conference championships that did so much to inform the abomination that is the "College Football" Playoff. It turns out the "reward" for success in the regular season is an extra game, but as evidenced by two championship losers making this year's playoff ahead of an inevitable increase in the number of playoff teams, at what point will teams tank conference championships in order to keep their players fresh for what's ahead?
If the question appears flippant, that's because it is. The teams that didn't make conference championships had already played 12 games, and those that did added a 13th. If they're lucky, the playoff participants will "only" have three more games to play to win the national championship, but very likely four. See the seeding of the teams if the previous sentence confuses you.
Of course, the three or four-game playoff was and is allegedly all about finding a real champion "on the field," but we know from the NFL (and two of the New York Giants' Super Bowl wins alone) that playoffs aren't nearly as confirming of superiority as some want to believe. From there, it's obvious the CFB playoff won't settle the champion as is when it's remembered that the CFB has little to do with the best teams (does anyone seriously think ASU, SMU, Boise, Clemson, Penn State, Indiana - would be favored over Alabama, Mississippi, and perhaps South Carolina?), and much to do with the selection committee not wanting to insult what market signals (think Vegas odds) would. Sorry, but winning (or losing) the ACC, the Big 12 or playing Boise State's schedule is not the same as playing even a partial SEC schedule (as all SEC teams sadly do now) contra the pretense of the CFB selection committee.
Some will say the playoffs made for frenzied discussion among fans throughout the season, but they leave out the tradeoffs. The regular seasons games don't matter as much, and they'll matter even less as the reality of 17-game+ seasons becomes apparent alongside a near-certain playoff expansion.
The SEC is easily the most tradition-laden of the conferences, but its fans will soon realize (assuming they don't already know) that the SEC is no longer the SEC, it's just the NFC to the Big 10's AFC. And since it is, watch as both conferences negotiate more playoff spots in a future playoff iteration that further waters down the regular season, that further diminishes the past excitement of early season out of conference games, not to mention many fewer traditional SEC games that made the SEC the SEC.
What's true for SEC teams is true for the other college football powers. Since they'll all eventually be in one or two conferences, the excitement of an early season Texas vs. Georgia or USC vs. Ohio State will soon enough be humdrum precisely to due to its relative regularity. Basically the rare intersectional or out-of-conference matchup, the in-conference matchups defined by local rivalries, and the bowls associated with all of the latter made college football highly lucrative, only for the powers-that-be to trample on all three traditions.
Tradition (including endless debates about who was #1 after January 1st) gave college football life, but those in control of what was so special decided to mimic the NFL. The allegedly business-minded powers ignored that college football fans are frequently not professional football fans. This truth can be found in the vast difference between attendees at college games versus those of the NFL, along with crowd sizes. After which, talk to any college football fan and a major driver of their interest in the NFL has to do with the players who played on their favorite college team.
Which brings us back to the players. As part of the odious deformation of the sport, former college-football players were transformed into paid college employees possessing unlimited free-agency (transfer portal) rights. The justification for all this was that the players were being exploited.
Actually, the players were frequently the exploiters as anyone who has tracked the careers of all-too-many "can't miss" recruits knows quite well. Not only were they always paid as is, they had access to facilities that put those of the NFL to shame, unlimited time to complete their degree, and for committing to a school that coveted them, they came to know the school's richest alums on a first-name basis such that they finished their time at said school with a rolodex that their fellow alums would have given anything for.
What's odd is that in the employee version of University-sponsored professional football, the players have been reduced to mercenaries with greatly reduced association with any university. They now have agents calling their shots, and watch as agents (eyeing the transfer portal, the NFL, or realistically both) start advising players to not risk their bodies on conference championships and multiple playoff games for a school they barely know. A playoff meant to be a football showcase will more likely be defined by a lack of depth, and all that it entails.
Which brings us back to Columbus. Precisely due to recruiting battles between charismatic coaches and their staffs, players arrived on campus as celebrities and built on their boldfaced status throughout their time at a school. Free agents now, watch as interest in them and the game they play shrinks, particularly among the alums with the means to do for them well beyond football.