It wouldn't be a proper offseason without some type of sweeping changes to the College Football Playoff. Of course, the latest change to the way the NCAA's most popular sport decides its champion is designed to benefit the SEC and the Big Ten. That's not great news for Texas Tech and other teams not in one of those two leagues.
Thursday, the administrators in charge of the playoffs announced that they had done away with the practice of awarding a first-round bye to the four highest-seeded conference champions. Instead, the field will be seeded 1 through 12 with no consideration given to conference affiliation.
This means that the champions of the four power conferences (the Big 12, ACC, SEC, and Big Ten) will still be guaranteed a spot in the 12-team field along with the highest-rated champion from one of the non-power conferences. However, the four top seeds in the field, which come with automatic byes into the quarterfinals, could theoretically go to four teams from the same conference rather than to the top four conference champions.
If you think this isn't a tweak designed to help the SEC and the Big Ten, then you are naive.
In the model used in the 2024-25 playoff, the SEC and Big Ten could have only received one bye apiece. Those went to No. 1 seed Oregon out of the Big Ten and No. 2 seed Georgia out of the SEC. Then, the other two byes went to No. 3 seed Boise State out of the Mountain West Conference and Arizona State of the Big 12.
That meant that SEC member Texas or Big Ten blue bloods like Penn State and Ohio State had to lower themselves to playing in the first round of the playoff. It is hard to conceive just how they managed to carry on while facing such daunting circumstances.
Now, under the new model, there is no objectivity when it comes to handing out the first-round byes. Instead, they will be determined by the opinions of the selection committee.
Of course, no one can envision a scenario in which those opinions are biased or even influenced by television partners in a way to get the most high-profile programs as deep into the playoffs as possible. That would never happen in the modern age of college football transparency...Oh wait.
What this means for Texas Tech is that the Red Raiders would likely have to run the table in the regular season to earn a top-4 seed. Even then, it isn't hard to imagine the Red Raiders being pushed down in the seedings in favor of a name-brand program.
Of course, if Tech were to win the Big 12 but not earn a bye, Tech could have the honor of hosting a first-round playoff game in Lubbock. That would be a magical weekend on the South Plains for certain.
Still, there should be no confusion from college football fans. This rule change was designed to help out two leagues, the SEC and the Big Ten.
Now, there is nothing keeping the selection committee from screwing over the teams from the other conferences. All the committee has to do is simply say that they believe that the top four SEC and Big Ten schools deserve byes because they played in better conferences, and it will be so. Lock those words into your brain and remember them in a few months because you will hear them again in December when the field of 12 is set.
This latest change to the playoff is just the first of what will be many adjustments to how the most lucrative prize in college athletics is handed out. Unfortunately, it won't be the last change that is geared toward giving two conferences an unfair advantage.