Here’s a brief public service announcement for those of you who can’t deal with change. Go ahead and hit the back button now. This column isn’t for you.
College football as we know it is dying, Eli Gold and Alabama just went through a messy divorce, and Alabama basketball crashed into a Big Blue wall over the weekend. To be fair, the Crimson Tide’s porous defense has been a constant this season, but that’s all I got in terms of regularity in this piece.
Today, I’ll provide my plan to fix the expanded College Football Playoff before it starts, say farewell to an Alabama legend and daydream about EA Sports’ new college football video game.
Pour yourself a drink, and let's dive in.
Drink of the week — Negroni
I had a different drink planned for this heading into the weekend. It involved champagne in honor of Alabama’s basketball team reaching the 20-win milestone for the second straight season. Following a 22-point loss at Kentucky, we’ll hold off on popping the corks for now.
Instead, let’s wind down the weekend with a drink more fitting of this board’s palate at the moment.
The Negroni is a gin and vermouth cocktail created in Naples, Italy in the early 20th century. It’s simple, refreshing and bitter. The latter is more in line with how Crimson Tide fans feel after No. 13 Alabama allowed No. 17 Kentucky to shoot 61.3% from the floor, including 54.2% (13 of 24) from deep on Saturday.
This cocktail doesn’t require a lot of effort to make — think Alabama’s road defense against ranked teams.
Pour an ounce of gin, an ounce of sweet vermouth and an ounce of Campari into a mixing glass full of ice and stir for about the amount of time it took Kentucky to fire off an open shot Saturday. From there, strain into a rocks glass with one big ice cube. Quality bigs are hard to come by in Alabama these days, so you could try using three or four smaller ice cubes. It just might not give you the experience you are looking for. Garnish with an orange peel, sit back and refresh for the coming week.
Cheers!
Fixing the future College Football Playoff
We haven’t even had a taste of the new 12-team playoff, and we’re already thinking about changing it.
Last Wednesday, college football commissioners met to discuss increasing the playoff field to 14 or 16 teams beginning in 2026 when the next CFP contract goes into effect. The change would also likely include adding more automatic qualifier spots for the Big Ten and SEC which are now poised to dwarf the rest of the sport in terms of talent.
First off, I’m not a fan of an expanded playoff. I was fine with four, even if it created a bit of drama. In fact, that made things more interesting.
However, if we are going to blow the sport up, let’s at least do it right. I agree with a few of the topics brought up last week — even expanding the field to 16 (well, sort of). However, there are some things that need to happen if we want this change to work.
With that said, here’s my manifesto on how the playoff should be constructed.
No conference championship games
I understand putting down conference championship games might not be a popular take, especially after Alabama’s win over Georgia for the SEC title was the high point of the Crimson Tide’s season last year. However, they are becoming pointless in college football’s new landscape.
Bragging rights aside, conference championship games don’t really matter in an expanded playoff. At least, they shouldn’t.
The way I see it, conference title games present two unsavory scenarios.
In Scenario 1, you have two teams who will be comfortably in the playoff regardless of the outcome, significantly watering down the stakes of the matchup. Alabama’s win over Georgia last year wouldn’t have been nearly as exciting had the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs already both punched their playoff tickets.
Another thing to consider here is that Alabama and Georgia could theoretically play three times this coming season — one during the regular season, another during the SEC Championship Game and a third time in the College Football Playoff. Heated rivalries are what make college football fun, but I think most people would agree that a season trilogy would be a step too far.
In Scenario 2, you run the risk of a team that doesn’t belong in the playoff making it solely off of winning its conference championship game.
Can you imagine if last year’s Oklahoma State team, a side that suffered a 45-3 loss to Central Florida, would have made the playoff by upsetting Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game. Better yet, imagine a hypothetical situation this year where a four-loss Big 12 team earns a bid by upsetting No. 15 Utah.
Yuck.
In my model, conference titles will be awarded to the team with the best league record at the end of the regular season. In the event of a tie, the winner will be determined by the team with the higher ranking. I understand that shared titles are underwhelming, but meaningless championship games run the risk of being worse.
A 16-team model with several automatic qualifiers
Now that we’ve nixed conference championship games, lets get down to the parameters of my playoff system.
My model includes 16 teams with eight or nine automatic qualifiers. The top three teams from the both the Big Ten and SEC along with the conference title winners from the ACC and Big 12 will all earn a spot. There will also be a guaranteed spot to the highest ranked Group of 5 team, provided it is ranked in the top 25.
All automatic berths are required to be ranked inside the top 25. In the event that a team is unable to fill one of its slots with a ranked team, that spot is forfeited and becomes an additional wildcard opening.
The number of automatic qualifiers per conference will be determined through a five-year metric that will award the top two conferences with three slots. For example, if the Big 12 surpasses the Big Ten or SEC over a five-year span, it would receive three spots while the conference it passed would drop down to one.
I feel it’s necessary to give the Big Ten and SEC extra automatic qualifiers, considering those two conferences contain the vast majority of contenders and have the hardest league schedules at the moment. I made sure to provide language to prevent undeserving teams from making the field, and there are still plenty of wildcard spots available for other programs.
After automatic qualifiers are determined, the eight highest-ranked teams remaining will fill out the playoff’s wildcard spots.
Initial seeding
While teams should be rewarded for winning their conference, I think it’s a bit overboard to ensure champions a top-four seed solely on winning their league title. For example, if Oklahoma State or Louisville had won their respective conference titles last year, neither would have any business jumping Georgia in an expanded playoff.
In my model, conference champions would be ensured a top-eight seed and a home playoff game but nothing more. Here’s how it would work.
After the 16 teams were determined through automatic bids and wildcard spots, the playoff would be reseeded to place all conference champions inside the top eight. If applicable, the Group of 5 automatic qualifier would be treated as a conference champion.
Conference champions outside of the original top eight could bump a non-champion in order to get into the new top eight. However, they could (and likely would) still fall behind a non-champion in the new top eight.
I tried explaining all of this to my girlfriend, and I think I lost her. So, here’s an example of how it would work using
ESPN’s Way-Too-Early college football Top 25 rankings as the final rankings come selection time.
According to ESPN’s projections, these would be the 16 teams included in my playoff model:
No. 1. Georgia (SEC No. 1)
No. 2. Ohio State (Big Ten No. 1)
No. 3. Oregon (Big Ten No. 2)
No. 4. Texas (SEC No. 2)
No. 5. Notre Dame (Wildcard 1)
No. 6. Ole Miss (SEC No. 3)
No. 7. Missouri (Wildcard 2)
No. 8. Penn State (Big Ten 3)
No. 9. Alabama (Wildcard 3)
No. 10. Utah (Big 12 1)
No. 11. Arizona (Wildcard 4)
No. 12. LSU (Wildcard 5)
No. 13. Michigan (Wildcard 6)
No. 14. Oklahoma (Wildcard 7)
No. 15. Florida State (ACC 1)
No. 16. Tennessee (Wildcard 8)
Since Utah and Florida State won their respective conferences, they would move into the top eight with Utah earning the No. 7 seed and Florida State earning the No. 8 seed. That would knock Missouri and Penn State out of the new top eight, leaving this as the initial seeding:
1. Georgia (SEC No. 1)
2. Ohio State (Big Ten No. 1)
3. Oregon (Big Ten No. 2)
4. Texas (SEC No. 2)
5. Notre Dame (Wildcard 1)
6. Ole Miss (SEC No. 3)
7. Utah (Big 12 No. 1
8. Florida State (ACC No. 1)
9. Missouri (Wildcard 2)
10. Penn State
11. Alabama (Wildcard 3)
12. Arizona (Wildcard 4)
13. LSU (Wildcard 5)
14. Michigan (Wildcard 6)
15. Oklahoma (Wildcard 7
16. Tennessee (Wildcard 8)
Byes, double-byes and the rest of the playoff format
Remember how I got rid of conference championship games? Well, my system will deliver something better on the first week of December as teams seeded 9-16 will square off in the first round in on-campus matchups.
Using the model from above, that would produce the following games:
No. 16 Tennessee at No. 9 Missouri
No. 15 Oklahoma at No. 10 Penn State
No. 14 Michigan at No. 11 Alabama
No. 13 LSU at No. 12 Arizona
The winners of those four games would be reseeded 9-12. For example, if Tennessee upset Missouri, the Volunteers would move to the No. 12 seed rather than take the Tigers’ spot as the No. 9 seed.
Once all that is settled, the four first-round winners would rejoin the rest of the playoff field for more on-campus matchups in the second round, which would be held on the third week of December. At this point, the tournament would look similar to the current 12-team setup we have today.
Before we get started on the second round, one change in my system would be that the four highest conference champions would not be guaranteed a bye in the second round. Instead, my double-byes would go to the top four overall seeds regardless of champions. In our example, that would be No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Oregon and No. 4 Texas.
With those top four teams guaranteed a spot in the quarterfinals, the second-round matchups would look like this:
(I went chalk in the first round to keep this example simple)
No. 12 Arizona at No. 5 Notre Dame
No. 11 Alabama at No. 6 Ole Miss
No. 10 Penn State at No. 7 Utah
No. 9 Missouri at No. 8 Florida State
From there, my system corresponds with the current setup, as the winners of those four games go up against the top four in the quarterfinals. Unlike after the first round, teams won’t be reseeded heading into the quarterfinals.
Ideally, the quarterfinals would also be played on campus in order to ensure the top four seed a home playoff game. However, money would likely get in the way of that. I’m trying to be realistic with my model, so I’ll go ahead and use the New Year’s Six bowl sites as venues at that point.
With that in mind, here’s how the rest of the playoff would look:
Quarterfinal round
No. 8 Florida State/No. 9 Missouri vs. No. 1 Georgia
No. 7 Utah/No. 10 Penn State vs. No. 2 Ohio State
No. 6 Ole Miss/No. 11 Alabama vs. No. 3 Oregon
No. 5 Notre Dame/No. 12 Arizona vs. No. 4 Texas
Semifinal round
Winner of No. 8/9 vs. No. 1 against winner of No. 5/12 vs. No. 4
Winner of No. 10/7 vs. No. 2 against winner of No. 6/11 vs. No. 3
Championship round
Winner of both semifinal games
Gold is a gem, but Alabama needs a fresh start
Alabama was right. It was time to part ways with Eli Gold. While still more than serviceable, he’s lost a step.
His Fourth-and-31 call against Auburn was lackluster, and he was late to identify Jihaad Campbell
during the linebacker’s fumble return against Tennessee.
Of course, I’m nitpicking. I’m in no place to highlight Gold’s recent flaws, not with the career he’s had. I could work another 50 years and not come anywhere close to the level he’s reached in his field. He’s cemented himself as an Alabama legend.
However, if you’d ask a younger Gold, I’m willing to bet he’d agree it was time for a change. I say this because the Gold I’ve met and spoken to on multiple occasions is as much of a perfectionist as he is a poet. He rolled his eyes at play-by-play announcers who stumbled over themselves while getting swept up in the passion of a big play. Instead, he treated his craft as a measured form of art, delivering his calls with a distinct blend of poise and presence.
I attended the “Rocky Block” game as a student in 2009. However, hearing Gold’s call of Terrence Cody’s block brings me right back to the bleachers where I was amongst a sea of anxious Alabama fans moments before they burst into a state of euphoria.
“The fans are cheering with that feeling in their stomach that’s hard to explain,”
Gold began on the call. “Morgan Cox will snap it, Bram Cannon will hold. Daniel Lincoln from 45 yards out to win it for the Volunteers. The snap, the spot… The kick is blocked! It is blocked by Alabama! It is blocked by Alabama! The Crimson Tide wins! The Crimson Tide wins! The Crimson Tide wins!”
Clear, crisp and composed. Gold captured the full emotion of the play without making it about himself. That’s what he did best and how I’ll remember his legacy at Alabama.
It’s a shame that Gold’s time as the voice of the Crimson Tide has
ended on a sour note. The hall-of-fame broadcaster has the right to be frustrated, and there’s an argument to be made that he’s done enough to warrant the benefit of the doubt for a few more years.
However, it’s hard to fault Alabama either. The decision to move on from Gold goes beyond any of the 70-year-old’s recent shortcomings. Nick Saban’s retirement closed a chapter in the Crimson Tide’s history while creating a natural break for a new era to begin.
Alabama is in good hands, as Chris Stewart is set to step into Gold’s shoes moving forward. Stewart brings a new style and is already beloved by Crimson Tide fans for his work serving as the play-by-play voice of Alabama basketball. His “Let’s get out of here!” catchphrase will become a classic following close wins in years to come.
Change can be difficult, and it’s going to be strange not seeing Gold inside the Bryant-Denny Stadium press box this fall. While it’s time for new memories to be made, his booming voice will always be celebrated as the soundtrack of Alabama football’s greatest era.
Milroe will be a monster in new video game
It’s yet to be seen how Jalen Milroe will fit into Kalen DeBoer’s new offense at Alabama. However, it’s a sure bet the dual-threat quarterback will be a fan favorite in the EA Sports College Football 25 video game set to be released in July.
Last week,
Milroe announced his decision to opt in to the video game, giving EA Sports the rights to use his name, image, and likeness. More importantly for fans, his unique blend of size, power and speed will also be included.
Good luck to anyone trying to stop the video-game version of Milroe. The 6-foot-2, 230-pound quarterback
has been clocked at 22 miles per hour in real life and figures to be given similar speed in the upcoming game. He also has one of college football’s strongest arms which should also be reflected in his ratings.
Dual-threat quarterbacks have long been deadly in EA Sports’ football games. Michael Vick was practically unstoppable in the previous NCAA Football games as well as in “Madden.” Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is similarly difficult to defend in the current version of “Madden.” When talking about Milroe ahead of last year’s SEC Championship Game,
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said Milroe could be even better.
"[Milroe] is like when I used to ask my sons on 'Madden' — they wanted to play with the Ravens, and I'd ask 'Why are you playing with the Ravens?'" Smart said. "They'd say 'I've got Lamar Jackson, and nobody can tackle him.' This guy is a bigger, more physical version of that. He is playing in a different speed than anybody else when you watch him."
It’s been a while since I’ve hit the sticks on my X-Box, so count me in as one of the many who will be looking to exploit Milroe’s athleticism when the game is reintroduced this summer.
alabama.rivals.com
