By BJ Bennett
SouthernPigskin.com

Follow us at Twitter.com/SouthernPigskin.  Become a fan at the SouthernPigskin.com Facebook Page

The direction, for college football, should always be forward.

Earlier today, I posted on Twitter that I was “frustrated with college football”. After some more time to think about it, I’d like to retract that statement. I’m mad. I’m disappointed. I’m confused. I have a number of questions about the game that I deeply fell in love with as a child and a number of concerns for the sport that helped get me through some tough times growing up. The finish of the regular season, stumbling into the start of the postseason, has left many with a similar question: where we are going?

I absolutely love college football, but that commitment has to come with criticism; Sunday was not a good day.

Among other inexplicabilities, Army, 9-2, will not get to play in a bowl game after one of the best seasons in program history and, get this, a previously guaranteed bid. The Black Knights will miss out on the postseason in an upcoming stretch of games that will include the Armed Forces Bowl, the First Responders Bowl and, until recently, the Military Bowl. Again, the United States Military Academy, winners seven of eight and the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, will not get to play in a bowl season where nine teams will losing records will. Army. That is embarrassing and unjustifiable.

The program has said it will continue to fight for an opportunity to play, something it, of all teams, shouldn’t have to do.

Coastal Carolina, undefeated, fresh off the best regular season in program history and the second 11-0 in the country alongside Alabama, won’t be playing in the New Year’s Six and will face a fellow Group of Five program, albeit a very good one in Liberty, in a contest that is essentially a rescheduled one from November. The Chanticleers are somehow just 12th in the College Football Playoff poll, still outside of the top ten despite two wins over top 20 teams, including a BYU side slotted 8th when the game was played.

One-loss Louisiana, boasting a 17-point win over an Iowa State team that was ranked sixth nationally entering the weekend, will face four-loss UTSA. Eight-win Appalachian State will open the postseason against an opponent it has twice as many wins than in four-win North Texas. Same for eight-win, nationally-ranked North Carolina State, set for a matchup with four-win Kentucky. Beaten only by playoff-bound Ohio State, one-loss Indiana will next take on five-loss Ole Miss.

The first team out of the final four, Texas A&M, with only a loss to top-ranked Alabama, will play a North Carolina team with three losses, two of them to opponents with losing records.

This college football season, played in the middle of a global health pandemic, has obviously been unlike any before it. In many ways, it’s a surprise as many games have been played as there have. Countless logistical challenges have made competition extremely difficult, much less processing all of those results. Even in a year where any program is eligible, over 20 teams have opted out from postseason play. More than a dozen bowl games have been cancelled. It goes without saying that organizing this bowl schedule has come without a modern precedent. None of it has been easy.

That said, so much of the postseason infrastructure seems outdated, from the limitations of tie-ins to the clear line of demarcation that keeps even the best Group of Five programs on the outside-looking-in. Though Cincinnati will play Georgia in the Peach Bowl, they will do so, ranked eighth in the latest College Football Playoff poll, still twice the distance away from having a real chance to compete for a national championship. At least in every other sport, like college basketball, all of the affiliated members have a mathematical opportunity to play for it all.

With bowl season soon to begin, only the Bearcats, from the Group of Five, will play in the month of January. Appalachian State, BYU, Central Florida, Memphis, Nevada and UAB are among those who will play before Christmas Eve. Buffalo and Marshall will meet on Christmas afternoon. Coastal Carolina and Liberty, along with Louisiana, will play the day after. Those ten programs are a combined 84-20. Eight teams .500 or worse will then play in the days that follow.

There will always be controversy surrounding the College Football Playoff itself. The first team out will always feel slighted. With Texas A&M, though, it’s easy to understand the argument. The Aggies defeated top ten Florida, won every game in an SEC-only schedule except one, losing just to top-ranked Alabama. In theory, that loss only proves that the Aggies aren’t as good as the Crimson Tide. Did the idea of a potential rematch come into play and hurt Texas A&M’s chances? Correspondingly, did that same concern, see Clemson and Notre Dame, impact seeding in the final four?

It’s hard to get clarity.

It’s also hard to get answers for what programs like Coastal Carolina and Cincinnati must do to truly have a chance to compete. Together, they went 20-0, with their total number of losses and chances at contending being one and the same.

College football has evolved. It needs a postseason format that has, too.

Overall, the sport continues to change. More rights for student athletes have long been needed. The next iteration is on the horizon. With more publicity and popularity than ever, college football has to continue to self-scout. While bowl games have forever been full of pageantry and tradition, a very part of what makes the holiday season so special for some, modern updates are needed. Common sense is as well. Beyond just the playoff, there remains work to be done.

Every postseason is incredibly meaningful, which is exactly why what happens matters.

The direction, for college football, should always be forward. The spotlight can’t simply be teams running in circles.