Commentary: The College Football Playoff appears to have worked

My man Tim Cowlishaw, esteemed SportsDay columnist, is not what you'd call progressive, no matter how many Uptown addresses he's collected or books he speed-reads or Taylor Swift songs he quotes. Don't be fooled. The man campaigned against instant replay. Probably protested color TV, too. So this is why you know the College Football Playoff might be headed in the right direction despite the rest of college athletics going to hell in a Gucci bag. Tim's a convert. The same guy once celebrated by the likes of Bill Hancock, patron saint of all that's good about college athletics, for championing the trusty, musty two-team field is on record this week that a 12-team playoff works so well that 16 might not be so bad after all. Of course, he's right, and, as usual, I'll go him one further: Not only is the CFP a good thing, it might be the only good thing to come from college athletics' new world order. This year's results signal more is better, a decision that could come as soon as Jan. 23. Before going there, a concession: You know the center's not holding when a quarterback who played in Cincinnati this season will get $5 million to play this fall in Lubbock. As one faithful reader noted, it's hard to treat them like kids if they're making NFL money. But, from a purely strategical standpoint, neither dateline had previously been associated with anything at the forefront of the sport, which speaks to the seismic shift. The distance between the haves and have-nots may have increased, but it's elbow-room only in the executive suite, which is showing some diversity for a change. Nick Saban warned us this would happen. It was his greatest fear. Also why he now sits next to Pat McAfee on Saturdays. The old guard liked it just fine when Alabama or Georgia or Ohio State won it every year. Their idea of a diversified playoff was to allow Clemson a seat at the table. The Buckeyes and Bulldogs remain good bets year in and year out. Come to think of it, maybe the Cowboys ought to draft one of them someday, but it's not a fluke that Indiana is suddenly a football school. That roaring from the Midwest is Bobby Knight spinning in his grave. The portal has leveled the playing field to accommodate anyone willing to pay the price, which is the best way to explain how the lower-seeded team has won in five of the eight CFP games going into the quarterfinals. Three of the top four seeds failed to make the Final Four in a year when the general consensus was that Indiana, Ohio State, Georgia and Texas Tech clearly were the best teams. The results suggest the field is much closer than we thought. Who could have imagined Miami, which lost to SMU, would hold Texas A&M to a field goal at Kyle Field, then bully the Buckeyes at JerryWorld? Does it mean the Mustangs were tournament worthy? Not with their record. No team with three or more losses should qualify for a 12-team field, which is why Texas had no complaint coming. But I'll say this: The Longhorns played well enough in the Citrus Bowl to suggest they could have, indeed, handled themselves just fine in this field. Notre Dame, too. Five years ago, any notion that the 10th-ranked team could have been good enough to knock off the second-ranked team would have seemed ludicrous. Now it's a reality. No reason to think it's just a one-off, either. Look at Tech. On the heels of an embarrassing end to a historic season, the Red Raiders went out and made the biggest play of the portal. Tech will be back near the top of the Big 12 and thus a playoff candidate, even if I'm not so sure the practice of awarding berths to the five conference champs is a good one. If you don't rate a ranking of 16th or better, you probably don't deserve a shot. As for how a 16-team tournament would work, I like what coaches are pushing: Start the season on zero week, play conference title games the week of Thanksgiving and wrap it up with the national title game on Jan. 1. Rivalry games such as Texas-Texas A&M, Alabama-Auburn and Georgia-Georgia Tech would have to move off Thanksgiving week, which is unfortunate, but it would give the revenue-producing league championship games a bigger window. Ending the season on New Year's Day would also fit the calendar. Players and coaches could stick with their teams throughout the playoffs, then move Jan. 2, as the players do now. Would playing straight through Christmas be too much to ask of student-athletes? Doesn't seem to be a problem with Texas high school football. Joey McGuire noted multiple times that his first state title team at Cedar Hill went 16-0. No one called child protective services, either. One other thing: Countering the notion that all players do now is play games and cash checks, McGuire noted that his Red Raiders just posted a program-record 3.23 GPA overall, and 33 members of the quarterfinal team have earned their degrees. Doesn't mean there still isn't a lot wrong with college athletics these days, but the tournament isn't a problem. Even Tim is down. Pretty progressive for an ol' Luddite.