Georgia vs. Tennessee the kind of must-see game expanded playoff will diminish

Everyone seems to be in favor of the new 12-team College Football Playoff that will arrive either next year or the season after. 

It will be more inclusive and extend the playing field beyond the usual suspects. It could conceivably balance out the top-heavy sport, since more programs will be on the biggest stage. It’s a win for college football, and I’m fully on board with tripling the number of playoff participants. 

One thing it won’t do is give us a regular season game like Saturday’s showdown between Georgia and Tennessee, or the Thanksgiving Day Weekend blood feud that is Michigan-Ohio State. It will lessen the regular season, at least when it comes to the very best teams in the country. 

For now, though, the four-team playoff has this going for it: It can still offer these absolute must-watch games like the contest that will be played in Athens, Ga. next Saturday afternoon. Georgia and Tennessee will enter the matchup undefeated, both coming off impressive blowouts of rivals, Georgia waxing Florida in the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,” and Tennessee treating Kentucky like a sparring partner. 

Like they say in boxing, someone’s “O” has got to go. The winner all but locks up a playoff spot. The loser finds itself in a very precarious position. So much is on the line between the famous hedges of Sanford Stadium. 

Both teams own a high-level win: Georgia obliterated one-loss Oregon in Week 1 and Tennessee outlasted Alabama two weeks ago. A loss, as long as it isn’t lopsided, wouldn’t ruin either’s résumé. But the team that suffers its first defeat will need help, namely that Alabama doesn’t run the table and win the SEC championship, because the odds of the powerhouse conference getting three teams in is extremely unlikely. 

It is a fascinating heavyweight fight, Georgia having won 26 of its last 27 games and looking to repeat as national champions, and Tennessee enjoying its best season since winning it all in 1998. The Volunteers’ second-ranked scoring offense against the Bulldogs’ second-ranked scoring defense. 

Soon, college football won’t be able to offer these kinds of stakes this time of year. Enjoy it while you can. Georgia-Tennessee, and Michigan-Ohio State in a few weeks, will give us regular-season drama, with playoff bids at stake featuring undefeated teams. The new playoff format has a lot of positives. But matchups like these before the postseason isn’t one of them. Instead, in the not-so-distant future, they will be for seeding. 

Now to the other side of the playoff, why expansion was so necessary. Oregon clearly wasn’t ready for that season opener against Georgia, as the 49-3 score indicated. The Ducks have certainly looked the part since, scoring at least 41 points in each of their last seven games, all of them wins, to sit all alone atop the Pac-12. 

Even if they win out, and handily defeat one-loss USC in the conference title game, a spot in the playoff seems about as possible as Nets coach Steve Nash making it through the season. That ugly loss is a pockmark on the résumé, and there are just too many other contenders with better wins from better conferences to leapfrog. But if this was a 12-team playoff? Oregon would be close to a lock as long as it continued its current pace. 

This was a bad weekend for the ACC and the Big 12. No, their top teams — Clemson and TCU — didn’t lose, but the teams behind them did. That isn’t good for Clemson and TCU. Oklahoma State was obliterated by Kansas State. Wake Forest and Syracuse lost to Louisville and Notre Dame, respectively. Those results bring down the overall quality of the conferences and could make it more challenging for Clemson and TCU to reach the playoff.