My Two Cents: College Football Season Ends With No Drama, But Great Storylines

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Tuesday was a sad day for me. It was the first day after the end of the college football season. And now we wait to September, which seems so far away.

Don't get me wrong. I love my college basketball, too, probably even more, based on being born and raised in Indiana. But the drama of a college football season always gets me, too, because I care about the storylines of the sport in all corners of the country these days.

And I love all the debates, too.

After forty-plus years in this business with a whole lot of moving trucks, I have close ties — and rooting interests in stretches when not working in the media — with the Big Ten, ACC and SEC, and now there's a splash of Pac-12, too.

So even though Indiana football has been brutally hard for two years and Purdue fans are wildly celebrating their six-loss season, we at least had two Big Ten playoff teams in Michigan and Ohio State. Both lost in the College Football Playoff semifinals, and that was too bad, but wow, that was a fun day.

And why? Mostly because we could have avoided watching Georgia annihilate TCU 65-7 on Monday night. We did not need that.

There are a lot of football arguments going on, so I'm going to quickly weigh in on them:

1. TCU didn't belong in the playoffs?

Sure they did, and the Horned Frogs deserved to be in the championship game, too. Here's why: They earned that title shot on the field by beating Michigan in the semifinals.

Michigan was clearly the second-best team in the country this year. They went 12-0, beat Ohio State soundly — in Columbus, no less — and absolutely deserved the No. 2 seed in the tournament. But TCU played a heck of a game on New Year's Eve and capitalized on every Michigan mistake, and there were a lot of them. They won, and earned the right to play for the title.

With a four-team playoff, the SEC and Big Ten champs are always going to be in the field. Those two leagues will often deserve a second team, too, and this year that was Ohio State. The best team out of the ACC, Big 12 or Pac-12 deserves a shot too, when resumes align, and TCU did a lot of good things this year, winning all 12 regular-season games.

2. SEC bias never goes away

By the time the Monday night rout was on, there were all sorts of people wishing it was Alabama playing instead of TCU. That's foolish, because Alabama had its chances and lost twice, to LSU and Tennessee. And even if TCU had lost a second game, there's no guarantee that Alabama could have beaten Ohio State or Michigan.

When there's only four teams in a playoff, you can't fill the field with SEC teams. This wasn't Alabama's year, plain and simple. Look, Georgia was great, and it's another title for the SEC, but that doesn't mean Alabama deserved anything more.

3. Ohio State could have won it all just as easily

There's been a lot of talk about how great that Georgia team was, but let's be real here, too. Ohio State had them beat, and let it slip away with Georgia erasing a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter to win 42-41. If Ohio State could have gained a few more yards on that final drive, maybe solid kicker Noah Ruggles makes that game-winning field goal instead of shanking a 50-yard attempt left.

Look, we've seen for two years now how good Georgia is — and in my eyes Ohio State was better that day. Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud — who got my Heisman Trophy vote — was really good against that great Georgia defense. Semifinal day was awesome, both games. It was the best doubleheader in playoff history, for sure.

4. Expanded playoffs will be a good thing

We're just a few years away from a new 12-team playoff system, and there still plenty of kinks to work out. The season is going to get longer, but if you love college football, that's never a bad thing, right?

This expanded playoff with games on home campuses is EXACTLY the plan I laid out in my novel ''The Ties That Bind'' eight years ago. It was my first book, and it was a fictional tale about gambling among college athletes and how far you'd go to help a friend. One of the lead characters was a Michigan football player, and there were playoff discussions in this very same 12-team format.

What I like about it is that titles should be won on the field, and not in some poll. I think all the conference champions should get a spot in the field, because then that makes a full season of conference play have even more meaning. Put the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Pac-12 and Big 12 winners in every year, and then add the best wild-cards. Leave one spot for the best Group of 5 teams too, so it makes their regular seasons matter as well.

Will we see some blowouts? Sure we will. But we'll have a lot of fun with it, too. December Madness? Sure.

5. Constant fluidity despite a repeat champion

What we think we know in September really doesn't mean much, does it? Amazingly, 15 of the 25 teams in the final Associated Press top-25 poll WERE NOT RANKED in the preseason poll.

That's incredible to me, and it says a lot about how competitive so many leagues are. Look who was unranked when the season began, with their final rankings:

2. TCU
6. Tennessee
7. Penn State
8. Washington
9. Tulane
11. Florida State
14. Kansas State
16. LSU
17. Oregon State
19. Troy
20. Mississippi State
21. UCLA
23. South Carolina
24. Fresno State
25. Texas

What this tells me is that there is always plenty of drama that's going to play out every season. And this year, for me, it was fun watching what Washington and Florida State did. Former Indiana quarterback Michael Penix Jr. won 11 games with the Huskies and led the nation in passing. That was so much fun to watch, and it was especially thrilling to see him play all 13 games without getting hurt.

I have long-term Florida State family ties too, and the three-time national champions returned to the top dozen this year after five down seasons. And not only were Washington and Florida State not ranked in the preseason, but neither school even got a vote. What a great turnaround.

6. 2024 can't get here soon enough

There hasn't been a three-peat national champion in college football since Minnesota won in 1934 through 1936. That's a long damn time. But that will be what Georgia will be chasing next year, with plenty of new pieces, of course.

The SEC is going to be loaded again next year, as always, but Georgia looks very likely to be preseason No. 1. It's going to be interesting to see if they can run the table.

For selfish reasons, I'm glad that quarterbacks Michael Penix Jr. and Jordan Travis are back at Florida State, and I'm looking forward to seeing if they can win some titles.

I'm looking forward to seeing how much Indiana can rebuild in the transfer portal. They've filled a lot of holes already. And Purdue has a new coach in Rex Walters. We'll see what goes on in the fall of 2023 too.

So, yeah, I'll enjoy my basketball, and then my major-league baseball, but come on, September. I'll be glad when you're back.