Can College Football Playoff get better than this? Oh, yes. Here's why | Toppmeyer

ATLANTA – Kickoff in the Peach Bowl stood 15 minutes away, and still I refused to take my seat on press row at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. On my right, to my left and behind me, fellow sportswriters joined me near the televisions at the rear of the press box as we watched the end of the first College Football Playoff semifinal racing toward a high-wire conclusion on the other side of the country.

No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 4 Ohio State could wait.

I wasn’t about to miss the finish to the most thrilling semifinal in five years. Hours later came a finish more thrilling than the last.

The CFP’s nine-year history has been filled with more blowouts than suspense, but as it went, No. 3 TCU’s upset of No. 2 Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl served as the first course on this New Year’s Eve heart-burner of a football feast. Next came the gluttony of talent served by Georgia and OSU in a showcase that surely left NFL scouts salivating.

As Ohio State and Georgia traded scores and the Buckeyes’ C.J. Stroud counterpunched with Georgia’s Stetson Bennett IV, college football fans surely resisted any urge to flip the channel to watch the ball drop.

This was the quality product the CFP was supposed to supply but failed to deliver for so many years. Before Saturday, the average margin of victory of a CFP semifinal had been 21.1 points. For most of the playoff’s existence, the Sun Bowl had a better chance of delivering a white-knuckle finish than a CFP semifinal.

Then came Saturday, and during Georgia’s 42-41 hairbreadth victory over the Buckeyes, I wondered, are we quitting on this playoff format too soon?

Ohio State (11-2) squandered a 14-point fourth-quarter lead. Bennett shrugged off a rocky three quarters to rally the Bulldogs (14-0) to another national championship appearance. Stroud made the partisan Georgia crowd cling in suspense after he drove the Buckeyes into range for a winning field-goal try. Noah Ruggles hooked his 50-yarder left as midnight struck.

The defending national champion survived. Somehow.

How does it get better than this?

The four-team playoff will give way to a four-round, 12-team format in 2024. I’ve applauded the change, and as good as Saturday's semifinals were, I still welcome the evolution.

I relish the 12-team format’s annual opportunity for a Group of Five qualifier to upset a big fish in a playoff game.

And sign me up for first-round playoff games on campus sites. Remember when Tennessee fans tore down the goal posts and baptized them in the Tennessee River after an October upset of Alabama? Now imagine if the Vols won a playoff game at Neyland Stadium. Big Orange fans might march the goal posts all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

ORANGE BOWLOverthrow Joe no mo', Joe Milton and Tennessee football roll past Clemson

SUGAR BOWL:How did Alabama football avoid Sugar Bowl opt-outs? A promise was made | Goodbread

Bryce Young treated us to one final magic act in Alabama’s Sugar Bowl triumph, but can't you envision Young jousting with Caleb Williams in a playoff matchup featuring the past two Heisman Trophy winners? Alabama and Southern Cal would have been a first-round playoff matchup in a 12-team playoff.

So, yes, bring on the expanded playoff, and don’t let Saturday cloud its benefits.

These semifinal games were like a day of amicable laughter between partners near the end of a relationship that has run its course. And you wonder, maybe this could work? But no, as good as this day was, something better awaits.

And yet, if we had more semifinal doubleheaders like Saturday, I wonder if we ever would have thought we needed this evolution. The playoff always was bound for expansion, because more playoff games means more revenue, and college sports are a business. But we probably would not have gotten here so quickly in a sport in which change often comes at glacial speed.

If we had more of Stroud and Bennett trading blows like the Heisman Trophy finalists they were, would we have felt a need to add seats at the playoff table for Tulane, Kansas State and Utah?

Stroud made Georgia’s heralded defense melt as quickly as a snowfall in the South, and his 348 passing yards and four touchdowns made me ponder more than the future of the CFP. I also rethought the Heisman Trophy ballot I cast in December.

Stroud was among the handful of quarterbacks I considered on my three-name ballot but not among those for whom I voted.

For most of Saturday, Stroud was the best quarterback in a stadium that included an opposing starter who improved to 28-3 as a starter. Bennett made costly miscues and missed some reads before reprising his role as gutsy winner. He completed 6 of 7 passes for 143 yards and two touchdowns on Georgia's final two drives.

Meanwhile, Stroud played as well as any quarterback I’ve covered in the flesh this season, and that list includes Young and Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker. Ohio State didn’t get much out of its run game, putting the burden squarely on Stroud.

OSU’s standout wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. turned Georgia cornerback Kelee Ringo into mincemeat, but a key moment occurred late in the third quarter, when Harrison absorbed a hit that knocked him out of the game.

With Harrison sidelined and the stakes heightening, the Bulldogs rediscovered their championship form in the nick of time.

For the first time ever, both semifinal games were decided by a single possession.

So, here's to the glory day of the four-team playoff. Now let there be more drama like this in the expanded format.

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it. Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered, or access exclusive columns via the SEC Unfiltered newsletter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: After Georgia survives Ohio State, can CFP get better than this? Oh, yes