Inevitable future of college football could be much more enjoyable to Razorbacks fans

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — First off, for those with thin skin, Notre Dame didn't get hosed. The Irish pinned their hopes on Arkansas being good at football and got a victory over a 2-10 winless SEC team for its trouble while racking up a single win over a Top 15 team with No. 16 USC.

However, the reality of the matter is Razorbacks fans wish they also had a good reason to be disgruntled on this cloudy December Monday. The simple act of missing out on the playoffs is a goal the Hogs should add to the list.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame and several 5-7 teams are joining Arkansas in not playing in a bowl game this year as it appears a few of these postseason games may not have participants. That's for two very good reasons.

The first is teams that go 5-7, which is what would have been the case for Arkansas had the Hogs squealed out three more wins, pack it up. Their players who are portal bound are scattered to the wind and the coaches are trying to get scouting boards fully updated because they need to figure out who the best 30-40 players are out there who will join their team for the money available.

The other side of the coin is Notre Dame, which is too disappointed in missing the playoffs to want to put time and effort into getting a team that won't be on campus anymore in a few weeks, ready for a meaningless bowl game. In all honesty, Vanderbilt probably fits this bill also despite the school's overall football history.

Something has to be done. Schools like Arkansas can't be sentenced to waste away in bowl games with nothing on the line. The days of bowl games mattering or having an usefulness as a source of entertainment have long past.

Even the teams that show up are barely shells of themselves that are only there because the conferences need the money. Rather than put out a poor product, there has to be a way to not waste potential television time with schools like Notre Dame, Texas, Arkansas (most years), and, yes, Vanderbilt.

For those who spent this past week arguing the 10-2 Commodores shouldn't get in because no one would want to watch them, Vandy appeared in a Top 5 most viewed games of the week four times and had over 4 million watching the final week of the season for a blowout win over Tennessee, which would have been enough to be in the Top 5 just about any other week.

The best way to salvage those numbers comes from a few steps. The first has to be that player and coaches' contracts run through the end of the football season.

That means NIL and revenue sharing deals require players to suit up for all available games, and teams cannot reach out to a coach to try to hire him until his team's season is complete, otherwise, it will be considered tampering and not only will a coach not be able to join the offending institution without forfeiting games, but a fine will be paid to the school from which they tried to poach.

Now, with coaches and players actually available, there has to be something for which to play. Basically, what is on the line is essentially the NIT, but with a lot more clout.

The Top 16 teams that don't make the playoffs compete in a tournament style playoff that incorporates many of the remaining bowl games. That allows college football to add meaning and value to 15 more bowl venues if people still insist they be part of the equation.

That means that back in 2021, when Arkansas had that 9-4 season under Sam Pittman, the Hogs would have been the No. 9 overall seed in this secondary playoff, while BYU, a team the KJ Jefferson led Razorbacks would go on to dominate in Provo the following year, would be the No. 1 overall seed.

In this instasnce, Arkansas travels to the Texas Bowl to face No. 20 Houston unless there was a decision to play games at a team's home field. However, either way, Arkansas fans would be traveling to Houston, in this case to play at what is now known as Space City Financial Stadium.

The teams would then battle it out and finish up in an eventual championship game taking place in either what is currently the Reliaquest Bowl in Tampa or the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.

The seemingly inevitable future of college football will include a separate playoff for Group of Five schools for the purpose of ESPN having plenty of content to put on television for a few more years. However, if it turns out no one has the money to pay for a third set of playoffs, then there is enough reasonable room in the "NIT" version for a James Madison or North Texas to slip through and win it all on an off year.

Of course, that leaves the question of how to classify the new Pac-12, but that's a debate for another day. For right now, it's enough to look to the horizon and see the final death blow to college bowl games.

At least in the form fans currently know it. There's only so many years the Razorbacks taking third stringers to face leftovers of a Big 12 team in what's left of a stadium and plumbing in Memphis.

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