Tim Benz: Lots to complain about with new College Football Playoff, but let's pick the right things

There’s plenty to complain about following the first round of the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.

But let’s be sure we are complaining about the right things.

One of those things is not that Alabama “deserved” to be in the CFP instead of Indiana or Southern Methodist.

Alabama lost three games. Two of them were to 6-6 opponents (Vanderbilt and Oklahoma). Alabama didn’t “deserve” anything. They certainly didn’t deserve to be both the No. 10 and 11 seed at the same time.

If you listen to Alabama fans, they make it sound like they should’ve had the right to lose twice over the weekend to both Notre Dame and Penn State on consecutive days instead of the Hoosiers and SMU.

Is the Crimson Tide a more talented team than both of those clubs? Yeah, probably. If the Tide played Friday in South Bend or Saturday at Beaver Stadium, would they at least have given the Fighting Irish or Nittany Lions a better game, if not pulled off an upset?

More than likely.

However, the selection committee shouldn’t keep out an 11-1 Big Ten team or an 11-2 ACC team that just played in a conference title game for a three-loss SEC team based on theoretical competitiveness.

One thing we should be complaining about is how certain teams are able to build their records within conference play. The conferences have gotten too big. The Atlantic Coast Conference touches the Pacific Ocean. The Big Ten is closer to the Big 20. The Big 12 is the Big 16. And, somehow, Norman, Okla., and Gainesville, Fla., are considered in the same part of the country.

I guess.

With no divisional alignments within the conferences, there is randomness in the scheduling. SMU and Clemson didn’t have to play each other or 9-3 Syracuse in the regular season. Miami had to go to the JMA Wireless Dome and lost. SMU and Clemson ended up playing each other for the title, and both got into the playoff.

Indiana didn’t have to play Oregon, Penn State or Illinois, and the Hoosiers lost to Ohio State. Those are the other four ranked Big Ten teams besides themselves.

The lack of uniformity within conference scheduling is going to lead to scattered results within the standings like that every year.

Instead, we can expand to 16 teams and risk upsets to the top-4 seeds and complain about that. Or contract to eight schools and complain about whoever was left out as the ninth-place team?

I’d be fine with that. Go straight to quarterfinal play and get rid of the byes. But that’s four fewer spots in the playoff, all of which are likely to go to Power-4 schools. Oh, and Notre Dame. Of course. Heaven forbid that to occur.

Don’t get me started.

Complaining about byes makes sense — at least, who gets the byes.

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Maybe all four byes shouldn’t be reserved for conference champions when, by nature of what we just outlined, some of the conference champions aren’t going to be as good as the teams seeded behind them.

All four home teams easily won in the first round. Maybe if Arizona State and Boise State had to play in the first round, and two of the four home teams (Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State and Texas) would’ve gotten byes, then we would have seen some more competitive football in Week 1.

Then again, maybe the Sun Devils and Broncos get their guts stomped just like Clemson, SMU, Indiana and Tennessee did.

Also, taking the bye away from the winner of four conference championship games really dilutes the importance of winning those games, doesn’t it?

And, honestly, so what if there are a few blowouts in the first round? It happens in the first round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. It happens in the first round of the NFL playoffs. This was a just flukey-bad year in that regard. I bet next season, one or two of the home teams lose.

To be fair to the CFP, that has been part of the problem with launching this new format in 2024. After 13-0 Oregon, every team has proven themselves to be flawed. Every other team had multiple losses, played a questionable schedule or came out of a conference that was in a down year after bloated expansion …

… or didn’t have to play in a conference at all and lost to a 7-5 MAC school.

Like I said, don’t get me started.

So there’s a lot to gripe about with the new format. But singing a sad song for the SEC’s fourth-place team or grumbling about a few home teams that covered the point spread is a waste of time.

What we should be raising a stink about is how the conferences are trying to have their cake and eat it too.

The College Football Playoff is off to an imperfect start in an imperfect system that’s operating within the far-from-perfect construct of conference realignment.

To me, that’s a perfect representation of college athletics in 2024.