The CFP’s Fatal Flaw: Long Layoffs, Empty Stadiums, and a Broken Calendar

MIAMI GARDNES, Fla. – Joey McGuire was right all along. The college football calendar and the College Football Playoff require a complete overhaul. With Texas Tech’s loss to Oregon in the Orange Bowl on Thursday afternoon, teams that received a bye into the quarterfinals are 0-6. Indiana and Georgia hope to buck that trend later today, but the early data is hard to ignore. 

The good news is that there is a common-sense way to fix the issues. The bad news is that conflicting interests and the lack of centralized leadership means that common sense rarely wins the day. The Red Raiders claimed their first Big 12 championship and its first outright conference championship since the 1950s on Dec. 6 against BYU. They didn’t play for another 26 days.