There’s no need to have the College Football Playoff this season. We can put it on a one-year hiatus because we all know how this is going to end.
A few weeks ago, I wrote that a national title game between Ohio State and Texas A&M was already set in stone. I got 50% of that right. The Buckeyes aren’t just going to make the College Football Playoff National Championship — they’re going to win the whole thing and do it in fairly dominant fashion.
It doesn’t seem as if any team in the country is anywhere close to Ohio State’s level in 2025. Maybe Indiana can actually give the Buckeyes a run for their money in the Big Ten Championship Game, but this feels like the type of spot where Ohio State reinforces the gap between it and the rest of the conference’s teams.
The offense is as good as ever. Though quarterback Julian Sayin probably doesn’t deserve the Heisman Trophy, the first-year starter has been playing some elite football. He’s an extremely accurate passer to every level of the field and avoids mistakes. It helps when you can throw to two of the best receivers in the game, Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate, though Sayin is incredibly talented in his own regard.
The defense is on another level. There were some worries that Ohio State would regress on that side of the ball after it lost defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and several of its top stars to the NFL. So, it’s frankly unfair that the Buckeyes are even better this year.
New coordinator Matt Patricia’s NFL approach to calling a game ties other teams into knots. New stars like Arvell Reese, who may be the first non-quarterback drafted in April, have meshed well with returning studs like defensive back Caleb Downs and fellow linebacker Sonny Styles to improve Ohio State’s talent across the board.
Ohio State is going to win the national title. It’s not going to have much trouble getting to that point. Let’s spare the bellyaching about an uneven playoff format and just give the Buckeyes the trophy now.
The SEC is going to have a rough time in the CFP
Obviously, the College Football Playoff will be played. Some of the games will be entertaining. For a certain part of the country, watching the SEC struggle in most of its playoff contests will be delicious schadenfreude because this year’s version of the SEC is not built for a deep postseason run.
Oklahoma’s’s defense can keep it competitive, but that offense is not built to succeed against high-level competition. Alabama looks incredibly fallible — the Crimson Tide lost to Florida State and Oklahoma while struggling against hapless teams like South Carolina and Auburn.
Again, the defense is top-shelf, but the offense has serious issues — including a late-season nosedive from quarterback Ty Simpson. Texas A&M once looked like one of the nation’s premier programs, but there’s an air of fraudulence around the Aggies. Their finale against Texas represented their first time playing a conference opponent with a pulse, and they got whooped by 10 points.
Two weeks before that, Texas A&M had to go on the largest comeback in program history to avoid a home upset against a rudderless South Carolina squad. A&M’s seven conference wins came against opponents with a combined 11-41 record in SEC play and it beat four teams that fired their coach midseason. That’s not the résumé of a juggernaut.
Maybe Georgia can save its league’s reputation, but the Bulldogs share a lot of the same problems.
The Big 12 should have multiple playoff teams
This really shouldn’t be an overreaction, but an overwhelming amount of the at-large conversation will go to teams like Texas, Notre Dame and even Alabama if it loses in the SEC Championship Game. That’s understandable. Those are the big brands, and they get a big platform.
Instead of shoehorning a team into the playoff because they’re historically good, though, the selection committee should focus on teams that have actually accomplished something this year. It feels like, unless BYU beats Texas Tech to capture the Big 12 title, the 11-1 Cougars are going to get left out in the cold.
That would be the real injustice. BYU’s only loss came on the road against top five Texas Tech. Its strength of record ranks No. 6, according to ESPN FPI, which is ahead of fellow bubble teams Alabama, Vanderbilt, Texas, Notre Dame, Miami and Utah. BYU’s strength of schedule (35) also ranks higher than Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Miami and Virginia.
BYU has won each of its past three games by double digits, so it passes the eye test. It succeeds in every single metric that the selection committee values, so what would be the logic in leaving the Cougars out?
Both Texas Tech and BYU are worthy of a playoff bid, no matter what happens in the Big 12 Championship Game.
Notre Dame doesn’t belong near the CFP
Notre Dame should certainly give way to a team like BYU. “But the Fighting Irish have won 10 games in a row,” you may shout via the keyboard. Hang the banner. They also lost their only two games of consequence when they started 0-2 against Texas A&M and Miami.
It’s patently absurd that this team is anywhere near the playoff conversation while the Cougars and others like Vanderbilt and Miami — again, a Miami team that has a head-to-head win against Notre Dame — get left by the wayside. It’s frankly impressive that Notre Dame is on a 10-game win streak and not a single one of those wins actually matters.
You can argue that the Irish beat USC, but the Trojans are the definition of mid. I’m convinced that Pittsburgh was only ranked to boost Notre Dame’s record. Even then, the Irish looked less impressive against the Panthers than Miami did.
The only thing keeping Notre Dame in the race right now is brand recognition and preseason ranking. If those are the only criteria, then cancel the regular season.
Hand Diego Pavia the Heisman now
Diego Pavia is the reason that Vanderbilt is in the College Football Playoff conversation. He’s the reason why the Commodores are enjoying their greatest season in program history and took Tennessee to the cleaners Saturday for their first win against the Vols since 2018.
All of that should be reason enough to give him the Heisman Trophy. He’s the engine behind one of college football’s best stories.
The numbers also back it up. He had 433 total yards of offense against Tennessee while scoring two touchdowns and averaging 8.3 yards per carry. That was his sixth game this season with at least 190 yards passing and 50 yards rushing — more than any other FBS quarterback.
In Vanderbilt’s last four games of the regular season, Pavia had 1,494 yards and 12 touchdowns passing. He’s averaged a whopping 14.5 yards per completion during that span. He checks all the boxes of a Heisman winner.
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