DALLAS — People think the 1966 NFL championship game at the Cotton Bowl, a 34-27 Green Bay Packers victory, was the Cowboys’ first playoff game.
Technically, it wasn’t. In 1965, after finishing second in the Eastern Conference for the first time, the Cowboys flew to Miami to face the Baltimore Colts in the Playoff Bowl.
The Colts won, 35-3, even with a running back (Tom Matte) playing quarterback. It was a terrible game and a terrible idea.
In the early days of the NBA, when four teams from each conference made the playoffs, the 1-seed played the 3-seed and the 2-seed played the 4-seed. There was no rationale for this system. It was a terrible idea.
For a decade, the NHL had 16 teams battling for the Stanley Cup when there were only 21 franchises. So an 80-game regular season eliminated five teams. It was a terrible idea, but, fortunately, it was the 1980s and, with no major cable contract, almost no one in this country was watching.
On Friday afternoon — what has become the traditional “news dump” period — word came that the College Football Playoff and ESPN had a handshake deal that will expand the playoff from 12 to 24 teams starting next year.
It is the worst postseason idea of all time. Move over, Playoff Bowl.
For years on ESPN, I fought the battle in favor of the BCS against the majority forces of an expanded playoff. I knew I wasn’t going to win that fight forever, but I have always loved the significance of the college game’s regular season. I grew up thinking the 1969 Big Shootout between undefeated Texas and Arkansas was as good as it gets. Nebraska and Oklahoma playing the Game of the Century two years later satisfied that same passion for the magic moment.
These were games that meant everything. In the world of even the current 12-team playoff, they would be battling for seeds, not history. In a 24-team event, good grief, a smart unbeaten team might rest its players just to prepare for the long postseason haul.
The 24-team tournament is an idea that fills the needs of ESPN and, to some degree, the Big Ten and SEC, but really no one else. Coaches hate it. Even though some coaches at the “Group of Five” level, like Matt Drinkall at Central Michigan, said it best this week.
“It’s just like everybody went nuts at once,’’ Drinkall said. "They’re going to prostitute the game as much as they can until the people stop caring.’’
The 12-team tournament already feels too long. Now we will be asking the best teams to win four playoff games or the bottom eight of that group to try to win five in order to become champion. If you paired up the teams by rankings right now, SMU (ranked 23rd) would open at Utah (10th). Beyond local interest, how much attention is that game getting nationally? Probably ranks right alongside No. 21 Boise State at No. 12 Kentucky.
These games are on the road to the championship. Is this really necessary?
Although nothing will be announced until the deal is finalized, indications suggest we are talking about weeknight games in December that turn into weeknight games in January to make this 23-game tournament work. College football might be wildly popular despite all of its modern day imperfections, but you don’t butt heads with the National Football League. The CFP tried that two years ago and games like Penn State-SMU and Clemson-Texas got destroyed in the TV ratings.
How do you think Northwestern-UCLA or Wake Forest-USC (more current AP-based matchups) are going to do against the Kansas City Chiefs? Better play those games on a Wednesday night.
Texas’ current slide from No. 1 in the nation to No. 19 has all of Longhorn Nation in a lather. Sark’s eyes appear closer than ever to popping out of his head in news conferences. But in a 24-team tournament, so far it just means the Horns may have to open the playoff on the road.
No one can reasonably argue that a 24-team tournament is in the business of seeking fairness. The first 16 games will be played on campus sites. Home field advantage is of much greater value in college than it is in the NFL. That’s why so many early games in the two years of the 12-team CFP have been one-sided. Imagine 16 games of heavy underdogs on the road serving as the kickoff for your tournament excitement.
The conference title games will disappear in this new format. Once the playoff expanded from four teams to 12, they already had become games where there was more to lose than to win. But their disappearance will only remind us that the conference races, the standings, all of it is irrelevant in the new landscape. From Labor Day to early December, being in the top 24 is the one and only thing that matters.
You hate to see a sport that can give us days like last Saturday — top 10 powers Georgia, Notre Dame, Texas and Alabama all losing to lower-ranked teams — getting trashed this way. The bands, the cheerleaders, the classic stadiums will still provide the atmosphere to keep us engaged week after week. But anyone that thinks a 24-team field is the perfect conclusion to all that comes before?
Like the man said: They’ve gone nuts.