By: Michael Spiers

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

When the first round of the expanded College Football Playoff wrapped up last season, the reaction was swift and unforgiving.

Blowouts dominated the weekend, critics scoffed, and the 12-team format was quickly labeled a failed experiment. The results seemed to back it up.

SMU was overwhelmed by Penn State 38 to 10. Tennessee never seriously threatened Ohio State in a 42 to 17 loss. Across the board, first round games were decided by an average of more than 19 points.

It was not just disappointing. It was dull.

But writing off the expanded playoff after one ugly opening weekend ignores a crucial truth about college football. Every season is different.

And in 2025, the first round of the CFP is positioned to look dramatically different for one simple reason. The bracket finally makes sense.

Last year’s issues were not inherent to expansion. They were structural.

Conference champions were guaranteed first round byes, which meant the bracket was distorted from the start. The five seed and six seed were effectively top four teams, creating mismatches that never had a chance to be competitive.

A first round matchup like Texas versus Clemson essentially pitted the number three team in the country against a true double-digit seed.

That is not drama. That’s math. This year, the math is better.

The 2025 first round slate is built on competitive balance, not artificial reward. The headliners alone tell the story.

Texas A&M hosting Miami at Kyle Field is a heavyweight clash between two teams that flashed genuine national championship upside.

Oklahoma versus Alabama is a rematch that still carries intrigue after the Sooners forced three turnovers to escape Tuscaloosa with a two-point win in November.

Those are not filler games. They’re the matchups the playoff was designed to create.

Even the games that appear lopsided on paper are more compelling than critics might assume.

James Madison will be challenged by Oregon, but advanced metrics suggest the game stays within two touchdowns. Tulane’s rematch with Ole Miss brings a fascinating layer of context.

The Green Wave are more complete, and their quarterback is far more settled than he was earlier in the season.

Ole Miss, meanwhile, is navigating transition after the departure of Lane Kiffin, which adds uncertainty on the other sideline.

That’s the point that I think critics keep missing. Teams evolve. Quarterbacks develop. Systems adjust.

Judging the entire playoff format based on one snapshot ignores how fluid the sport has become, especially in the NIL and transfer portal era. The gap between elite teams and the upper middle class has shrunk significantly.

Last season’s biggest imbalance was not caused by expansion. It came from Ohio State. The most talented roster in the country stumbled into the eight seed after an indefensible loss to Michigan, warping the bracket and creating an unavoidable mismatch. There is no comparable outlier in 2025.

College football is not broken. It is changing. The expanded playoff is neither a cure all nor a fatal flaw. It is the next evolution, complete with unintended consequences.

What expansion has revealed is that college football’s biggest issues were never about the number of teams invited. They were about power, perception, and identity.

Expansion did not remove those forces. It rearranged them.

The challenge of the playoffs has always been adjusting expectations without losing what made college football special in the first place.

The chaos did not disappear. It simply found new ways to show up, and the sport is still learning how to live with it.