Nov 6, 2025
Rudel
There are some new faces,
but OSU, SEC’s best still tops
The long overdue 12-team College Football Playoff has appeared to create the perception that there’s more parity, but the end result so far doesn’t support that.
Yes, more programs have a place at the table, and Penn State benefited from that in 2024.
In the 11 years of the CFP, no upstart surprise has crashed the party to win the big prize, and very few of the non-bluebloods have even advanced to the championship game.
The champions have been Alabama (three times), Georgia (two), Ohio State (two), Clemson (two) and one each for LSU and Michigan.
Maybe Indiana, Texas A&M or Mississippi will change that this year.
Last year’s CFP field included the Hoosiers, SMU and Boise State. Texas Tech and BYU may do so this year.
But getting to dance and playing in the final, let alone winning it all, are different.
Penn State found that out last year when superior coaching and quarterback play are magnified.
Indiana couldn’t play Notre Dame to a one-score game in the 2024 quarterfinals and was clocked by the Buckeyes by three scores in the regular season.
SMU looked terrified in a first-round game at Beaver Stadium, and then the Lions blew out Boise in the quarterfinals.
Further, even the finalists the last three years — Notre Dame, Washington and TCU — weren’t competitive in the CFP title game.
I don’t see it changing much. The rich are going to keep raising the stakes not only for coaches and their absurd buyouts but also for players.
Consider two of Ohio State’s transfers this season. Tight end Max Klare was Purdue’s top player for the last two years and is now a Buckeye. Ditto running back C.J. Donaldson, who left West Virginia.
Such defections are demoralizing for Power-4 affiliates and underscore the gap.
Previously, there were more transfers moving down than up.
The lack of parity at the highest level of college football is what really what cost James Franklin his job.
His ill-advised “elite” pledge to catch Ohio State in 2018 didn’t help, and when he couldn’t, fans eventually grew tired of his big-game losses and encouraged a change.
Oregon, with Nike’s support, has a healthy war chest of NIL funds but after beating Ohio State in the regular season last year, the Ducks were drubbed in the rematch in the CFP semifinals.
Now with a loss at home to Indiana, Oregon may be trending downward, along with Clemson, where Dabo Swinney has lost his way.
Swinney has won two national titles so it’s doubtful he’ll be fired, but he was slow to embrace NIL and the transfer portal, and consequently Clemson has fallen behind.
While job searches are in high gear at Penn State, LSU, Florida, Arkansas, Auburn, Virginia Tech and UCLA, you have to wonder where all the money to purchase a new staff, pay off an old one and rebuild (translate: buy) a roster will come from and what kind of condition those programs will be left in.
Maybe it leaves room for a newcomer like Indiana to slip in and beat Ohio State or the SEC’s best when it matters most.
That would be refreshing and fun to see, but don’t bet on it.
Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.
Tipoff: 8 p.m., Schollmaier Arena, Fort Worth, Texas Records: Saint Francis (0-1, 0-0 NEC); Texas Christian (0-1, …
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