Tim Benz: Adopt the 2020 chaos! Include Cincinnati, Coastal Carolina in College Football Playoff.
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The most overused phrase of 2020 is, “Hey, it’s 2020!”
Well, allow me to employ it one more time while discussing college football.
Hey, it’s 2020! So what better year to bust the College Football Playoff norms than this year?
The selection committee should embrace the chaos and admit either Coastal Carolina or Cincinnati.
Or both, for all I care.
And, believe me. When I say, “for all I care” in this instance, it’s not a throwaway line. I’ve never cared less about college football than I have this season.
Why should I? Why should anyone?
Well, to my point, except college football fans in Cincinnati and Conway, S.C.
Yes, before you ask, I had to look up where Coastal Carolina was before I wrote that.
But everyone else in America has merely absorbed this college football season in typical 2020 form. Willy-nilly. Haphazardly. Randomly. In drive-by fashion. In tiny bites. We didn’t know when games would be played, if the games would be played at all.
Partial rosters. Partial schedules. Opt-outs. And with limited fans in the stands in most places.
I’ve felt socially distant from the sport since September.
Putting the Bearcats and/or Chanticleers into the College Football Playoff would make me a heckuvalot more invested than I would be if it’s yet another incredibly predictable assembly of Clemson, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Alabama.
On occasion, you might see an out-of-nowhere Cinderella team make the college basketball Final Four. See George Mason, Butler or Loyola-Chicago.
And what better year than this one for that to be the case in college football? Even better, what kind of giant, fun-sized asterisk would we have to put next to “College Football National Champion” in Wikipedia for 2020 if Cincinnati or Coastal Carolina were to actually win the thing?
C’mon! How 2020 appropriate would that be?
But I know, I know. That could never happen. The Bearcats and/or Chanticleers would get clobbered by one of those Power Five schools. And God forbid there should be a blowout in the College Football Playoff.
I mean, that never happens.
Except for LSU beating Oklahoma 63-28 last year. Or Clemson squashing Notre Dame 30-3 and Alabama 44-16 the year before. Or Clemson blanking Ohio State 31-0 in 2016-17. Or Alabama shutting out Michigan State 38-0 in 2015-16. Or Oregon throttling Florida State 59-20 in the first year of the format.
Have I made my point? Am I laying it on thick enough yet?
Good.
Talent-wise, are Clemson, Notre Dame, Alabama and Ohio State the four best teams in football? Yeah. Presumably.
Should one of them falter, is a team such as Florida or Texas A&M a more competitive replacement? Sure. Most likely.
Is that more fun? Heck no! In this year of so little joy and such randomness, give me the feel-good story that’ll likely never have a chance to be there again.
If Clemson loses to Notre Dame (a second time) in Saturday’s ACC Championship Game, gimme Coastal Carolina.
If Ohio State gets an invite after playing just five games before receiving a bastardized invite to the Big Ten Championship Game? Puh-leez! Forget that. Gimme that “other school from Ohio” down I-71. Go Bearcats!
Or — and here’s a crazy idea — expand the field to eight teams to include them both.
Oh, what? Suddenly sticking to a schedule is a concern? Perhaps you’re worried about the rules changing in midstream?
Got it. Remind me, though. How did Ohio State get in the picture, again?
”But Coastal Carolina had to cancel its Sun Belt Conference Championship Game against Louisiana.”
Pfft! Who cares. They still played 11 games. USC and Ohio State combined to play 10 so far.
I’m sure there are many Power 5 fans reading this, shaking their heads saying, “This is stupid. This column doesn’t make any sense.”
You know what? I can’t argue. You are probably right.
And that’s precisely the point. In this case, your favorite pint-sized columnist is — fittingly — “Team Little Guy.”
Ohio State, out. Cincinnati, in. That’s what I say.
If Notre Dame beats Clemson again, make Conway the new capital of South Carolina football.
And if that doesn’t work out, let Cincy play Coastal in their own bowl game. If there’s only one fan allowed in the stands, let it be me.