College Football is over, and it will never be the same. Following the final whistle of tonight’s National Championship Game, Washington is now, for all intents and purposes, a conference rival with Michigan.
The Championship Game went as all championship games should go (sorry TCU), and featured a back-and-forth fight between two 14-0 teams who definitely deserved to be there. If you a reading this article, you probably watched the game, so there is no reason to recap anything here, rather, here are five takeaways from the game that will have an impact going into the off-season.
1. Big 10 May Sneaking Up on the SEC
The SEC is the king of college football, and everyone knows that. But with two future Big 10 teams in the Championship Game, and all 16 future SEC teams sitting at home looking at schedule breakdowns for next year (seriously, that’s what they were doing on the SEC Network this afternoon), one has to wonder if the Big 10 is starting to close the gap on the SEC and their dominance.
One reason to think this aside from tonight’s game is the footprint of the Big 10. The Big 10 now has a footprint in California, Oregon, Washington, the entire Midwest, and the New England area. The SEC is still only in the South, although by adding Texas, they gain a stronger hold in the Lone Star State.
2. Michigan and Washington Aren’t Going Anywhere
The biggest surprise of the night for many fans was that the game wasn’t Blake Corum vs Michael Penix Jr. Instead it was a trio of running backs (including Corum) vs Washington’s defense that after the first three drives became dominant.
This showed that both teams are much deeper than their star player. Kalen DeBoer is a rising coach, but unlikely to go anywhere (unless the NFL calls maybe), and Michigan has already shown it can win without Jim Harbaugh, should he decide to return to the NFL.
3. The Big 10 is in Danger of Cannabailizng Itself in 2024
If you haven’t looked at the Big 10 schedule, you’ll notice that games for next year weren’t created to be fair; they were created to be entertaining. Washington, USC, and Oregon run a very different style of offense than the rest of the Big 10, yet Washington showed tonight that it can compete well with the style of teams like Michigan and Ohio State. Yes, the game got away from them at the end of the game, but overall, it was a close game.
Next year, just as an example, Washington plays Michigan, Ohio State, Iowa, Oregon, Penn State, USC, and UCLA. I’m not sure the Carolina Panthers would go 7-0 against that schedule.
The good news is that the Playoff is expanding to 12 teams, allowing for a Big 10 team to probably go 9-3 and still have a shot at the Playoff.
4. Defense Finally Travelled
One of the popular bets tonight was to take the OVER on the point spread which was set at 55.5 points. In the previous nine games since the Playoff began, games had gone over the spread seven of the nine years. With the explosive offense of Washington, many thought it would be easy money.
Through the first quarter, betters taking the over felt pretty good with their chances (on pace for 68 points). Then Washington started to play defense. By the middle of the fourth quarter, it became pretty clear that for only the third time in the last decade, the defenses showed up and outplayed what Vegas projected.
5. Transfer Portal, NIL, Have Their Flaws, But College Football Still Is Awesome
If you’ve followed my stories, you know I’ve got some major concerns and issues with where things are with college football. NIL is not being regulated, there are way too many opt-outs, and the transfer portal is out of control. Despite that, this Championship Game had me glued to the screen for all sixty minutes.
There are still a lot of issues with college football, but tonight showed, that college football is still the greatest sport on earth.
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