CFP Plus: 4-team CFP era ends with a bang
So now it is done.
Two-time defending national champion Georgia did not make it, nor did unbeaten, ACC champion Florida State, another milestone of sorts in the 10-year history of the 4 team college football playoff system.
This year's Final Four will be No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 4 Alabama in the Rose Bowl on January 1, and No. 2 Washington vs. No. 3 Texas in the Sugar Bowl.
Next year begins a new era-12 team playoff system, with first round byes and all sorts of new controversies waiting to be unveiled.
What we won't see will be the tension of this weekend in this year's conference championship games.
Next year, under the same circumstances, Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State would make the playoffs, Alabama, Georgia and probably Missouri would make it from the SEC, Oregon and Washington would make it from the Pac-12.
Gone, sadly is also the Pac-12 which because of expansion moves by the Big Ten and Big 12, has been reduced to Oregon State and Washington State, which will meld with the Mountain West.
Gone is also CBS's relationship with the SEC, which made 3:30 Eastern time a special time slot on Saturday afternoon's n the fall.
You can argue about the overall value of league championship games in the grand scheme of a sport which looks more and more like NFL-light with each passing day.
The agony of defeat felt by Georgia, which went from two-time defending nationally ranked champion and No. 1 ranked team to being cast aside as NOT \one of the four best teams in college football with one simple announcement.
The No. 6 ranked Bulldogs will have to settle for a consolation prize in the Orange Bowl against FSU.
And then there is the ACC and FSU, snubbed and snubbed by the selection committee.
FSU now is in the history books as the first power 5 conference champion to post a perfect 13-0 record and NOT get selected to the Final Four.
This was explained away by CFP selection committee chairman Boo Corrigan--also the North Carolina State athletic director---quite simply.
""FSU is a different team than the first several weeks of the season,'' said Corrigan, referring to the season-ending leg injury suffered by FSU quarterback Jordan Travis, as the primary reason why the Seminoles dropped from 4 to No. 5 in the final rankings.
So now we move into the post season phase of college football with a pair of intriguing semifinals and a plethora of other holiday bowl games.
Enjoy. We won't see anything like it again in terms of the regular season merging into the post season with some dramatic moments at the regular season.