College Football’s Best Are Set to Clash - But What’s the Real Value of Conference Championship Games Anymore?
The fourth College Football Playoff rankings of the season dropped Tuesday night, and once again, it’s Ohio State and Indiana sitting at No. 1 and No. 2 - just like they’ve been all year. No surprises there. These two Big Ten powerhouses have been the standard all season long, and unless something truly wild happens in the conference title game on Saturday, they’re likely to stay right where they are when the final seedings come out on Sunday.
The oddsmakers agree. According to FanDuel, Ohio State and Indiana are the clear favorites to win it all.
The Buckeyes lead the pack at +185, with the Hoosiers right behind at +380. After that, the drop-off is steep - Georgia (+750), Notre Dame and Oregon (+1000), and Texas Tech (+1100) round out the rest of the top contenders.
So here’s the question: if everyone - the committee, the sportsbooks, the eye test - agrees these are the two best teams in the country, what exactly are we doing with this conference championship game?
Let’s be clear: there’s a lot of tradition and pride tied to winning a conference title. For the players, coaches, and fans, it still means something. But from a structural standpoint - in a playoff era that’s supposed to crown the best team in the country - the value of these games is starting to feel more symbolic than impactful.
Take the ACC, for example. Miami finished 10-2 and came in at No. 12 in the latest CFP rankings.
But they’re not playing for the conference title. Virginia, ranked five spots lower at No. 17, is.
Why? Because of a logjam of teams with identical conference records - Miami, Pitt, SMU, Georgia Tech - and a tangled web of tiebreakers that don’t include head-to-head matchups for everyone involved.
So instead, Virginia will face Duke (7-5) in the title game, and if Duke pulls off the upset, it’s entirely possible the ACC gets shut out of the playoff altogether.
That’s not just frustrating - it’s a flaw in the system. If we’re going to keep conference championship games, then at the very least, we need a better way to determine who plays in them.
When head-to-head results or common opponents can’t sort it out, why not use the CFP rankings? They’re already the gold standard for determining playoff spots.
Why not let them break ties too?
Back to the Big Ten: Ohio State and Indiana are both 12-0. They’ve been dominant all year.
Saturday’s matchup is going to be a heavyweight fight - no doubt about it. But the truth is, the outcome probably won’t change much.
If Ohio State wins, they stay No. 1.
If Indiana wins, maybe they swap places. Either way, both are almost certainly headed to the playoff, and both are good enough to win it all.
That raises a bigger issue. In this new world of college football, where conferences are ballooning to 18 teams and schedules are increasingly unbalanced, how do we truly know who the best teams are? When not every team plays each other, and tiebreakers get decided by arcane rules, are we really putting the right teams in the right games?
It’s worth asking whether these mega-conferences are helping or hurting the sport. A more streamlined setup - say, 10 to 12-team leagues where everyone plays everyone - would make it much easier to determine a true champion.
No guesswork. No convoluted tiebreakers.
Just results on the field.
There’s also a timing benefit. Start the season in Week 0, scrap the conference title games, and you could kick off the playoff in early December. That would move the national championship up to early January, giving it some breathing room before the NFL playoffs dominate the sports calendar.
Of course, we all know why things are the way they are - money. Conference championships bring in big revenue, and college football, like everything else, follows the dollars.
But somewhere along the way, the sport lost sight of what’s best for the game itself. The current structure wasn’t built for the playoff era, and it’s starting to show.
That said, Saturday’s Big Ten title game is still must-watch football. You’ve got the two best teams in the country, both undefeated, both loaded with talent, and both with a real shot at a national title. It’s a preview of what could be the real showdown in January - this time, with everything on the line.
So enjoy the game. Just know that when the dust settles, and the playoff bracket is set, we may look back and wonder whether this extra layer of drama was necessary - or just another relic of a system that needs a serious update.