The 2024 college football season is officially in the books. As I am typing this the confetti is falling inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta as Ohio State just beat Notre Dame the National Championship Game.
Now a national championship game between two bluebloods like Ohio State and Notre Dame sounds great on paper, but it certainly didn’t play out that way on Monday night. The Buckeyes came into the game as heavy favorites and that is exactly how it played out.
Ohio State dominated the Fighting Irish and at one point had a 31-7 lead in the third quarter. Notre Dame never stood a chance and it was one of the most boring championship games in recent history.
As bad as the game was, there are other things that need to be addressed. I have said this before, but college football needs to move the championship game. Why is the biggest game of the season on Monday night? For a sport based on tradition, it seems pretty silly to play your championship game on a day that is better known for Monday Night Football.
The NFL plays their biggest game of the year on Sunday which makes sense because they play the majority of their games on Sunday. Of course, one could argue that the following day should be a national holiday but that is a completely different conversation.
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Make the Game on a Saturday
One thing that I really noticed this season was just the lack of excitement around the country when it comes to this game in particular. I felt like nobody was talking about this game until the day of because it was a complete afterthought compared to the NFL playoffs.
Instead of talking about a national championship between two of the biggest bluebloods the sport has to offer, it was put behind every single NFL playoff game that happened the weekend prior. The talking heads weren’t talking about college football because they were too busy talking about the Kansas City Chiefs trying to three-peat, the Lions getting bounced, the Mark Andrews drop and the snow game in Philadelphia. And to be honest, those seemed a lot more interesting than this title game; and I say that as a college football guy.
By no means am I comparing the two. At one point in time, college football was bigger than the NFL, but those days are long gone. The NFL is king, and college football would be stupid to go head-to-head against it. It would be suicidal for the sport to have College Football Playoff games going up directly against the NFL Playoffs.
Shave Two Weeks Off the College Football Season
The sport can do two other things as well. First of all, what is now known as Week 0 should be made as Week 1. Instead of most teams starting the season Labor Day weekend, have them start the week before. Secondly, get rid of the bye week before the start of the playoffs. Teams that don’t get a bye should be playing the following week after conference championship weekend.
That alone would shave two weeks off which means you could have the national championship game done before the NFL playoffs even start. If you can bump up the season and get rid of the bye week then there could be a scenario where the national championship game is played on New Year’s Day which would be fun. But I know that will never happen due to the bowl games.
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While you may not agree with my idea, I think most of you reading this would agree that something needs to change with college football. The timing of the playoffs and the national championship game are terrible. Maybe not next year or in the next few years but at some point, it is going to hurt the sport and it’s better to get ahead of the problem now than later. Then again, trying to make major changes in college football is like trying to teach an old dog new tricks.
