Bohls: Expanded CFP field is good for the Rose Bowl and all, but regular season diluted

The Rose Bowl relented. Finally.

That may be the biggest upset of the college football season. Even bigger than South Carolina over Tennessee and Clemson, Marshall over Notre Dame, TCU over everybody and App State over Texas A&M. OK, well maybe that last one wasn’t that big of a shocker, come to think of it.

Throughout history, the Rose Bowl always has gotten its way. This time, however, college football won out when a 12-team expanded College Football Playoff field was approved Wednesday.

But all win.

Especially fans.

More football is always good.

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But even then, the granddaddy of them all has its own agenda, and that’s remaining relevant as college football ushers in a new era. Otherwise it could have gone the way of the Bluebonnet Bowl. OK, maybe not that low, but you get the point. It wouldn’t have been part of the CFP's New Year’s Six slots.

The Rose apparently was given an ultimatum to play ball: it could hang onto its coveted, late-afternoon kickoff time on Jan. 1 but be excused from the postseason format. The Rose Bowl signaled fair catch and acquiesced.

And it needs to be part of the playoff structure or Keith Jackson might come back and leave a horse’s head in Bill Hancock’s bed.

Now I’d like to offer a serious caveat.

The regular season will be diluted. That’s just a fact of life.

Oh, the games will count. The pageantry will still be great. And we’ll still miss weddings and birthday parties to watch Ohio State-Michigan and the like.

But the sport won’t be the same.

For the sake of more inclusion — i.e., more money — college football will sacrifice the serious impact of individual games for the sake of more games, more eyeballs on those games, bigger coaching contracts with CFP incentives with eight more slots available, more money, etc. Did I mention more Benjamins?

But the individual games will mean less. In terms of impact because teams with two and even three losses will still have a chance to crack the field.

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Kind of like major league baseball and college basketball (is it March yet?) and the NBA, which I swear lasts so long it seems to take a couple of weekends off in August before tipping off again.

Starting with the 2024 season, Ohio State-Michigan won’t be for the playoffs. It very likely will be for seeding. Alabama-LSU, the same. Alabama-anybody. So long as Nick Saban is breathing, Alabama will be in the 12-team field every year. We all know it. So will Ohio State and Georgia and Clemson.

The top six spots go to the highest-ranked conference champions. The next six highest-ranked teams in the CFP standings will get the final berths.

But the Group of Five won’t have to scrounge for a spot. Those 66 teams will be guaranteed a spot but probably not more, mostly because they don’t have the sufficient strength of schedule criteria. A bit of advice for Group of Five teams: schedule aggressively and go unbeaten, as Cincinnati did.

But the 12-team field will likely have a distinct SEC-Big Ten feel. I’m just hoping eight of the spots aren’t devoured by the two mega-conferences. I’ll be shocked if at least six of them will go to those two leagues every season.

Personally, I prefer an eight-team invitational.

That would allow for more meaning and impact on games in the early season like Alabama-Texas and Oregon-Georgia and Notre Dame-Ohio State. Twelve is a lot.  Too many, in my mind.

You might think I’m speaking out of both sides of my mouth and typing out of both sides of my keyboard, if you will, because my favorite sports in order are college football, college football, college football, college baseball and college basketball.

I can’t get enough of college football, the spectacle of 100,000-plus at The Big House and DKR, the wild craziness of the games, Bevo attacking Uga, The Big Game, endless replays (OK, not that), and the thrilling outcomes. The season, as is, just flies by. Can you believe the regular season will be over in a day?

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I do like the fact that the UTSAs and Boise States have a chance to play with the big boys. They deserve a seat at the table.

According to the agreement, the first round of the playoff in 2024 will take place the week ending on Dec. 21 at either the home field of the higher-seeded team or at another site designated by the higher-seeded school. The No. 12 team would likely be fodder for the hosting No. 5 team, but who ever thought a 16 seed would knock off a 1 seed in hoops? Certainly not Virginia.

Personally, I think I favor a home-field advantage for the higher seed.

For the 2024 and 2025 seasons, the four quarterfinal games and two semifinals will be played in bowls on a rotating basis. Starting off, the 2024 quarterfinals will take place in the Fiesta, Peach, Rose and Sugar while the Cotton and Orange will host the semifinals.

The following year, the 2025 quarterfinals will take place in the Cotton, Orange, Rose and Sugar while the Fiesta and Peach will host the semifinals. The national championship games will be played Jan. 20, 2025, in Atlanta, and Jan. 19, 2026, in Miami.

All sounds good on paper.

Even for the Rose Bowl.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Expanded CFP format good for Rose and fans, but not regular season