College football’s loudest voices have spent the last few weeks demanding that the College Football Playoff limit or outright ban the 5-school group in the future.
Complaints started in front of Tulane Green Wave and James Madison Dukes failed to make their first round clashes competitive last weekend and have only intensified since.
The logic behind many of these arguments have been mostly suspect. Some said the games were failures, conveniently forgetting that there have been breakouts in every CFPwith schools like Oregon, Ohio State and Notre Dame down the line.
Others argued that G5 schools had not earned the right to play because of their schedulesas part of a a broader campaign to devalue winning in sport.
Another argument is that it is a security problem to let G5 athletes compete against Power 5 programs, even though these teams play each other all season and no one bats an eyelid.
The only honest reason you would want to exclude G5 schools from the PCP is because you care above all about television audiences. Everything else is just a rhetorical trick.
Urban Meyer of Fox Sports was among the the most vocal critics of G5 schools participating in the call for proposals, and he shared his latest reason why on The triple option podcast.
“They’re not the twelve best teams in America. To be honest with you, it’s not even close,” Meyer said. “And, from what I’ve seen? I guess what’s amazing to me is, what did you expect? You know, maybe there would be a huge upset or something, but to throw these guys out there and say, okay, you’re going to go play Oregon? You know, I’m just not a fan of that. When I saw the shot, I thought that’s not – it’s really not fair to the players involved, it’s not fair to the coach, and it’s certainly not fair to these two teams who were excluded.
“It was a little embarrassing for college football for that to happen, you know,” Meyer added. “Like I said, what did you think was going to happen? You know, it was going to happen, and it did.”
The game is incredibly pitted against G5 schools and similar programs when it comes to how the college football media treats them, and Meyer’s reasoning here is a perfect example of how their status is used against them.
First, as Meyer alludes to, it’s entirely possible for a G5 school to upset a Power 4 school in the CFP. The potential thrill of that is what sparks excitement about March Madness and is not without precedent in college football. Not every playoff game has to be a showdown between the top-ranked teams. There’s plenty of room for both.
Second, Meyer’s insistence that the CFP slot is “not fair to the players involved” is incredibly infantilizing. James Madison lost to Oregon by 17 points. Yes, the game got out of hand early, but the Dukes proved they didn’t give up and finished closer than many powerhouse programs have been in their playoff games over the years (Oregon lost to Ohio State by 20 last year, and no one called for the Ducks to be banned).
Additionally, JMU players had the chance to play in front of a national audience and elevate the status of their program. They may have lost, but they never gave upsomething we were told we were supposed to enjoy in college football. Several of them will exploit the success of this season to transfer opportunities to major schools. Incoming head coach Billy Napier manages to sell a CFP appearance to recruits.
The idea that the appearance of the CFP and the subsequent defeat was “not fair” to the players or coaches is infantilizing, hypocritical and disrespectful.
Third, Meyer said the outcome of the games was “pretty embarrassing for college football that this happened.” We’re guessing he feels the same way about Ohio State’s 28-point loss to Alabama in 2021, Alabama’s 28-point loss to Clemson in 2019, Tennessee’s 25-point loss to Ohio State last year and TCU’s 58-point loss to Georgia in 2023. All embarrassments for the sport that demand answers, according to Meyer.
The real embarrassment of college football is the way so many members of the media behave on this topic.
