HS Alliance
The outdated spaghetti western known as the College Football Playoff expansion has three entities standing and looking at each other in the crescendo of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” but without the iconic score providing the backstory.
Reminiscent of Angel Eyes, Tuco and “Blondie” – take your pick for which entity represents which character – there are SEC numbers on one side, Alliance officials on the other and representatives of the Group of 5 who regard the other two with significant suspicion. All three factions deserve demerits for bringing the situation to a head, but the current stalemate that likely leaves college football playoffs untouched until 2026 has ended all analogies to the iconic film scene. In the CFP world, there are no more balls left because they were fired in the “Shoot, Prepare, Aim” portion of the playoff debate last summer.
There is enough blame for everyone, as always in college sports. Half-step measures that have meandered over 30 years, from traditional bowl games to coalition / alliance to the bowl championship series from 1998 to 2013 and now with the current playoff format, still leave shrapnel. shells for future college football post-season surgeries. This time around, executives have in fact made a semi-radical, forward-thinking announcement to reverse every step of apparent progress with a series of missteps over the past seven months.
“Not even close,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said on Monday.
The sad part is that there are common sense solutions to some of the biggest points of contention.