Unranked Oklahoma rolls into the State Fair in Dallas this weekend to face #1 Texas, a matchup that used to be the stuff of legend, a season-wrecker. But let’s be real, folks: in the age of a 12-team College Football Playoff, that kind of drama? It’s gone. Oklahoma’s motivation to ruin Texas’ season, a century-old tradition, just can’t happen anymore. The Longhorns might lose this game, sure, but the danger of them losing anything more than that? Pretty much non-existent.
The New Normal: Championship Hopes Don’t Die on a Saturday
This isn’t just about the Red River Rivalry. The stakes of early-autumn clashes, even the biggest ones, just aren’t what they used to be. Take #6 Alabama and #2 Georgia meeting in a huge showdown this weekend. If the Crimson Tide beat Georgia, what does that get them in December? Maybe a first-round bye in the playoff. But here’s the kicker: the Bulldogs could lose that game and still end up with a first-round bye themselves. That’s the trade-off we got with an expanded postseason, and if some folks in charge get their way, it’s about to get even crazier.
24 Teams? Get Ready for Even Less Meaningful Blockbusters
As of Thursday afternoon, the College Football Playoff and ESPN were in a 30-day negotiating window, batting around the idea of a 24-team playoff format starting as early as next year. That window slams shut on Friday. If they actually double the current playoff field, whether it’s next season or down the line, we’re looking at a wild shift. On one hand, those mid-November matchups between, say, three-loss Missouri and three-loss Texas A&M, or a one-loss UTSA against a one-loss North Texas, will suddenly mean more. But the flip side? Games like Texas-Oklahoma and Georgia-Alabama, the ones we used to circle on the calendar, will mean even less than they do now.
Look, these games will always be special, and people will still watch. We still love watching the Seahawks play the Patriots or the Chiefs take on the Bills during the NFL regular season, right? And none of those singular games have the power to make or break a team’s championship hopes. But the sheer magnitude of a mid-October Saturday, or any regular season week for that matter, used to be a massive part of college football’s appeal. Coaches at Oklahoma or Texas could wreck their season, or even their career, if they couldn’t win in Dallas. There were always ramifications. These days? Oklahoma’s head coach Brent Venables lost to the Longhorns three times in his first four seasons. Those losses sting, but they don’t carry the same season-ending, career-altering weight they once did.
The negotiation window for the 24-team playoff is set to expire on Friday. What decision comes out of that will tell us everything about the future of these classic rivalries and what we can expect from college football’s biggest games moving forward. It feels like we’re on the brink of another seismic shift, and honestly, the game might never be the same.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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