Don't Get Mad at ACC, Big Ten; Be Happy

Call it unfair if you'd like.

Calling anything other than smart is just wrong.

No. 3 Clemson and No. 2 Notre Dame won't be on a football field Saturday afternoon. Neither will No. 4 Ohio State. Yet all three will play next weekend with conference titles and potential trips to the College Football Playoff on the line.

And that's how it should be in 2020. What the ACC and Big Ten did to set up their conference championship games is 100 percent in the best interest of their leagues, and neither should be condemned for doing so.

Now, these situations are quite different, so here's a quick recap of how we got to two controversial decisions:

Clemson's game against Florida State was not played on Nov. 21 because the Seminoles backed out of the competition because of COVID-19 concerns. Tiger head coach Dabo Swinney questioned FSU's reasoning and said there was no way his team was heading back down to Tallahassee to spend another $300,000. Rock, meet hard place. The ACC didn't want to get involved in forcing this game, and for good reason, so it avoided the issue entirely by rearranging its schedule.

The scenario it came up with was this: Clemson didn't have a game scheduled for Dec. 12, so instead of the Tigers getting another opponent added (FSU simply wasn't an option), Clemson got the week off and other games were created to fill slots. Not wanting to ask Notre Dame to put its undefeated record on the line against Wake Forest and force the Irish to play a refreshed, more-prepared Clemson squad, the ACC simply let ND out of their game and declared Brian Kelly's squad was headed to Charlotte on Dec. 19.

Clemson then won its way into the ACC Championship Game with a 45-10 win over Virginia Tech, via winning the tiebreaker over a Miami team the Tigers throttled earlier in the season.

In the Big Ten, conference leaders decided to reverse their rule that to play in the league title game, a team had to play six games to qualify. That allowed Ohio State, which is 5-0 and had three games canceled because of COVID-related issues, to face Northwestern next week because it beat Indiana, a team that did meet the previous requirements to represent the East Division, head-to-head.

Essentially, both conferences made it easier for their teams to reach the CFP. Notre Dame didn't have to risk a loss or injury against Wake Forest. Sure, they would've been heavily favored, but games aren't decided by betting lines, so the Irish got a break.

Clemson didn't have to prepare for an opponent it wasn't previously scheduled to play (again, FSU game was never happening after that fateful decision three hours before kickoff). The Tigers (and the ACC) ensure entrance into the CFP with a win over the Irish, which could potentially still get in if they lose next Saturday.

Good move by the ACC. The league could end up with two teams in the biggest, and most lucrative, event of the season. It would be a huge coup for commissioner John Swofford in his swan song, and adding ND to the ACC for just one season pays off beautifully either way.

This decision wasn't universally applauded. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey took his shots at the ACC. However, he's been silent after what the Big Ten pulled this week.

The vote to allow Ohio State into the conference championship also makes too much sense. The Big Ten has botched this season in nearly every sense. It didn't want to play back in August. Then it did once it called everyone's bluff and sat idly by while the ACC, SEC and Big 12 prepared for September start dates.

Then it decided to jump back into the mix in October with the strictest of COVID-19 policies and an 8-game schedule that left no windows for games that would inevitably be postponed. Still, their 6-game rule was stupid when they made it, and like much of their decisions in 2020, they realized it and reversed course.

Well done, Big Ten. Ohio State is your cash cow. If the Buckeyes can't even compete for a conference title, that falls short of the first guideline the CFP committee uses to determine its final four: a conference championship. It simply wasn't worth the risk of OSU falling out of the top-4.

You can't get mad at one of these leagues for doing what they did and then love the other. Many long-standing rules and understandings have been primarily declared null and void in the pandemic era.

What hasn't changed is the fact that the CFP is what matters most in the sport. Not doing anything and everything to give yourself a chance to get there is financially and systematically reprehensible.

"Fair" doesn't and never really has described college football. Like many things in this crazy year, embrace these truths and enjoy great matchups the rest of the season.

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