The sports talking head shows won the war. They’ve got you choosing a new side, one day feeling sorry for Notre Dame, the next day angry for BYU. But Miami beat Notre Dame head-to-head? Yes, but that was months ago! Notre Dame won 10 straight and can’t you see how mad their athletic director is at the ACC? He’s boycotting the bowls all together, a move that will likely cost him millions and give sports networks weeks of angry content.

With ESPN, streaming, and network/cable sports networks as fragmented as NCAA power conferences, it seems everyone’s chasing as much cash as they can in College Football. ESPN had me signing up for four different packages this season from an out of network preseason game where they tossed in Hulu and Disney+ to a Fox throw in so I could watch Michigan Ohio State. There’s been YouTube fights over Monday Night Football and now the in the works Netflix and HBO merger seems destined to make more must watch behind the scenes shows.

NIL money is coming in from different angles all over the U.S., and the vested interest of more powers that be in the corporate world should lead to more eyeballs hate watching the sports talking head shows. The influx of cash has led to a better product, as I must say I’ve enjoyed college football this year as much as any in the past. QB play is strong (they’re getting most of the money) and the stakes are high. Coaches are on short leashes getting $100 million contracts to jump to rival schools.

Its been madness, so its only fitting for the selection committee to follow suit. It is likely the last year of a 12-team playoff as SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten Commissioner Tony Pettiti, who have the most power in the sport, shared differing plans on how to expand the playoff. Petitti wants a format with four automatic bids each for the SEC and Big Ten, two each for the ACC and Big 12, and one for the Group of 5 (a 4-4-2-2-1 format), while Sankey wants 5 automatic bids and 11 at-large selections. Sankey has since pushed for no automatic bids and wants the committee to choose all the teams, which after this year seems like another vote for chaos.

16 teams seems the likely 2026 future. In the maligned Pre-Playoff Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Era, there were plenty of outraged instances with three undefeateds. A 10-2 team would never complain about not getting a shot at a NCAA Championship.

Its a new playoff era, which by any account was expanded as much by ESPN, Kirk Herbstreit, possibly Nick Saban and Rece Davis as it was by the Conference Commissioners. They planned this day to be a controversial day for the ratings years ago! If that’s the core of a “this selection was rigged by ESPN against Notre Dame for not being in a conference and playing exclusively on NBC for years” argument, I will certainly buy it.

More talking head chaos and content sure to come. Rooting for Netflix to overtake ESPN in the college footbal streaming world. They can win on the behind scenes content, with even more access on a “Hard Knocks” acquisition, but good luck buying a college playoff game from ESPN for the next 10 years.