The final College Football Playoff rankings are out, and they reveal a major flaw in the current system: there is no mechanism to prevent early round rematches.
Based on the current bracket, two of the four first round games would be regular season rematches. If Duke upsets Virginia and knocks the ACC champion out of the No. 11 seed, it could become three, with Mississippi facing Tulane, Alabama facing Oklahoma and Notre Dame meeting Texas A&M.
The CFP is still in its infancy, and the committee is working out the kinks. But this particular issue has an easy fix, one the NCAA basketball tournament solved years ago. In that tournament, any teams who met in the regular season cannot play again until at least the second round. The committee simply moves a team one spot up or down the seed line to create a new matchup.
Applying that simple rule here would create a far more compelling first round. Tulane would face Texas A&M, Alabama would draw Mississippi and Oklahoma would meet Notre Dame. These are fresh matchups that benefit fans and the sport.
Here is why college football needs to adopt this rule moving forward.
Rematches Give Teams a Built-In Advantage
College football has always prided itself on the importance of the regular season. For decades the sport marketed itself on the idea that every week was a playoff.
In the 12-team playoff era, that is no longer true. Now teams can lose once or twice and still qualify, and in some cases that benefits them. Last year, Ohio State figured out exactly what went wrong in its loss to Oregon. When the teams met again in the Rose Bowl, the Buckeyes dominated from the opening kick and never allowed the Ducks into the game.
This year, Ohio State and Indiana both have more reason to hold back than to fully empty the playbook in the Big Ten championship. The loser will almost certainly still earn a first round bye, so the priority becomes getting out of the game healthy and avoiding any unnecessary tells.
In any playoff rematch, the edge goes to the team that lost the first meeting. They have the benefit of breaking down the film, fixing mistakes and adjusting their game plan. It is much harder to overhaul a winning blueprint. Starting the postseason with a rematch inherently puts the original winner at a disadvantage.
Rematches Hurt Fan Interest
Fans have been vocal about their dislike for unnecessary rematches. The BCS title game between LSU and Alabama in 2011 is a perfect example. Oklahoma State and Stanford were available that year, but the system forced a repeat matchup that drew tepid interest outside the SEC.
The same logic applies here. Watching a second version of a game that already happened does not attract new viewers. The NFL can get away with rematches because of the league’s structure. With 32 teams and seven playoff spots per conference, repeat games are inevitable and accepted.
College football is different. Only 12 of 134 teams make the playoff, just under 9 percent of the sport. When 91 percent of the teams are eliminated on Selection Sunday, fans want novelty. They want to see matchups they have not already watched. Putting rematches in the first round removes that excitement before the tournament even starts.
Extra Prep Time Magnifies the Problem
Bowl games often turn into blowouts, in large part because of the extended preparation time. When a coaching staff has multiple weeks to design new wrinkles and exploit weaknesses, the results can be dramatic.
Last season, only one of the first eight CFP games was decided by a single score. Texas edging Arizona State was the lone exception. Everything else ended in double digits. The added prep time widens the gap in coaching, depth and game planning.
Combine that with a rematch, and the odds of a blowout grow even higher. A team that already knows what worked and what did not in the first meeting now gets three more weeks to refine it. That is not the recipe for the competitive first rounds the sport wants.
The Solution Is Simple
The best solution is to adopt the basketball tournament rule with slight modifications for football. College football teams can only meet twice before the postseason, so the rule becomes:
- If teams met once in the regular season, they cannot meet again until the semifinals.
- If teams met twice, including in the conference title game, they can only meet again in the national championship.
Fans do not mind rematches when they feel earned. Under this system, a rematch would only happen if both teams advanced far enough to make it meaningful.
Last year, this adjustment would have bumped Ohio State to the No. 6 line, pushed Penn State to No. 7 and moved Notre Dame to No. 8. That simple shift would have kept Ohio State and Oregon on opposite sides of the bracket instead of forcing a rematch in the quarterfinals.
This year’s fix would be even more compelling. Notre Dame and Oklahoma are two of the sport’s biggest brands. Alabama and Ole Miss is a regional rivalry that did not take place this season. Tulane would be cast as the underdog entering one of the sport’s most famous venues.
It is not a perfect solution. Nothing ever is. But preventing early rematches makes the bracket far more sensible and far more exciting. For a sport built on drama and unpredictability, that is exactly what the playoff should deliver.
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