Thank you 2023 CFB Playoff Committee for officially killing off what was once the greatest sport on the planet.
Others have tried before you came along, but you finally accomplished it.

For over a century, College Football was the only sport that could truly poke out its chest and boast that "every game matters".
And for more than a century, through multiple methods of naming a champion, it always did its absolute best to stick to that philosophy.
It wasn't always perfect. And many years there was some level of controversy. But you could always still make the argument that every game of the season mattered.

At first, the fatal flaw was that "when" you lost seemed to matter more than "who" beat you. And that didn't seem quite right.  So along came the BCS to help change it to more of the "who" rather than the "when".

But that presented a problem.  The media no longer had as much sway in the matchups. Even though the BCS came awfully close to batting 1.000 in picking the 2 best teams.  But that wasn't the matchups the media wanted in some years, so they started squawking about "fixing" this problem.

Along comes the 4 team playoff and using a committee to pick the top 4.  And I warned then that using a committee to pick and choose was not a great idea.
And while not quite as adamantly, I wasn't very fond of expanding, because the more you add, you become more and more likely to include teams with losses.  And in college football, every game was supposed to matter.  Losses were supposed to be as unforgivable as we could possibly make them.

This is the 10th season of the CFB Committee. For the previous 9 years, I do think they've done a pretty good job. Most years there wasn't a whole lot of controversy. And when there was a rational explanation was given.  You may not have agreed with that reason, but it was always related to "data points" of games that have been played.

Until now.

The committee chairman admittedly dismissed the 13 games actually won on the field by Florida State.

Quote

“An incredible season. But as you look at who they are as a team, right now, without Jordan Travis, without the offensive dynamic that he brings to it, they are a different team.”

Wait, what?

So the games they won don't count (3 of those after Travis went out, by the way)?

Are we penalizing Florida State for games they MIGHT lose at some point in the future?
And doing so while simultaneously forgiving two teams for having losses that DID actually happen?

Seriously?!!?

But that's OK, the "fix" is on the way next year!

No no no no. We're not going back to when all of the games played actually mattered.
We're going to expand the playoffs. So even more teams with even more losses can join in the fun!

From "every game matters". To "hypothetical future games matter more than games already played", to "what the hell?  teams with 2 and even 3 losses can get in, only about 3/4 of the games actually matter"

This is the part where people say "well the 13th team doesn't really have a case".
Ok that's fine.  But that's a tough pill for a team ranked 12th or 13th or so having to watch a team ranked #23 getting to play while they sit at home (that's what would happen if we were at 12 teams this season).

We didn't fix the sport. We killed it.